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Church of Saint Norbert - Zabytek.pl

Church of Saint Norbert


church 1636-1643 Kraków

Address
Kraków, Wiślna 2

Location
woj. małopolskie, pow. Kraków, gm. Kraków

An originally Baroque church of interesting past.Part of the urban development in ul. Wiślna.

History

The land on which the temple now sits was obtained by Abbess Dorota Kątska for the Norbertine Sisters in Zwierzyniec. Mindful of the siege of Krakow in 1587 by the army of Archduke Maximilian Habsburg, she decided to erect a small convent with a church in the centre of Krakow, near Zwierzyniec. She bought a few houses in ul. Wiślna. The construction of the church and monastery began in 1636 owing to the assistance of Bishop Piotr Gembicki, who consecrated the Church of St Norbert in 1643. In 1643, twenty sisters from Zwierzyniec moved in to the convent in ul. Wiślna. Agnieszka Jastrzębska became the first abbess, however subordinated to the sister superior of the convent in Zwierzyniec. The nuns lived here until 1803 when 15 sisters and the superior, Brygida Otfinowska, moved back to the convent in Zwierzyniec. The vacated convent buildings accommodate a printing house of the Jagiellonian University. In 1805 the church organs, pulpit, pews, altar stones, the church stone flooring and the wooden loft flooring were removed and handed over to the parish priest of Racławice. In 1808 the Austrian administration transferred the church to the Greek Catholic Basilian Fathers. They came from Warsaw in 1788 to settle in the former Bernardine monastery, the so-called Nursery, at the corner of ul. św. Jana 6 and ul. św Tomasza 11a. Next, the Basilians moved to the Franciscan monastery until they finally settled at the Church of St Norbert. A description of the church from 1822 reads, “the entrance to the church from the south is through a porch; the monastic choir enters from the monastic side; the main altar features a great wooden Passion; besides, there are two small altars: of St John Cantius donated by the Austrian government and of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary left after the Norbertines.” The description also covered the building from the side of ul. Wiślna, then housing the Uniate presbytery. After the dissolution of the Basilian Fathers, a diocesan priest took over the church and the Greek Catholic parish. In 1850 the interior of the church burnt. In 1896 an impressive iconostasis was installed in the temple. Designed by the architect Tadeusz Stryjeński (1849-1943), it was made of brick and decorated with stucco. It also featured paintings by Władysław Rossowski based on Jan Matejko’s sketches (1838-1893). Between 1892 and 1895, the painter Władysław Rossowski (1857-1923) painted a set of 29 paintings for the iconostasis. After WW2, it was disassembled and the paintings and J. Matejko’s sketches were transferred to in the National Museum in Kraków (Jan Matejko’s House in ul. Floriańska 41). In 1947 the Uniate parish was dissolved, and the church was taken over by the Kraków curia. After 1948 the Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette took care of the church and convent. In the years 1965-1968, they renovated the complex thoroughly and made a new entrance from ul. Wiślna. Since 1998, the church and the convent buildings have been used by the Greek Catholic Parish of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, subordinate to the Przemyśl-Warsaw Archdiocese.

The Church of St Norbert, now the Greek Catholic Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, was built in the years 1636-1643. In the years 1778-1785, Dominik Pucek and Karol Kryszkier renovated the convent and the church ave bell spirelet. Another remodelling of the temple took place in the first half of the 19th century, and new roofing was installed after a fire in 1850. The reconstruction of the complex in 1887 was carried out according to the design by Tadeusz Stryjeński. In the years 1914-1918, the front façade of the church an convent was conserved. In 1934 the bishop of Przemyśl, Kucyłowski, consecrated the renovated interior of the church. The polychrome from the end of the 19th century was conserved by the students of the Academy of Fine Arts under the supervision of the regional conservator of historical monuments, Bogdan Treter, and Andrzej Oleś. The church and convent were thoroughly renovated between 1968 and 1970.

Description

The church stands at the corner of ul. Wiślna and Planty Park. It is integrated into the adjacent buildings. The most visible is the south façade with a porch and entrance. The church is an early Baroque, brick, oriented, single-nave building covered by a barrel-cross vault on transverse ribs. The church has a rectangular plan and does not have a separate chancel. It is covered by a double-sloped roof with two triangular gables. The east gable has six semicircular panels flanking stone obelisks on pedestals (“pyramids”) and an iron cross at the top. The west gable is similarly designed, with three panels still preserved. Two Baroque portals from the period of the construction have survived: at the entrance to the porch and from the porch to the church. Inside, there is an iconostasis reconstructed after 2000. Another interesting item is a late Gothic sculpture of the Crucified from the beginning of the 16th century. On the walls, there are two paintings: of Christ Pantocrator and of the Virgin Mary with Child. The stone wall stoup with the Nałęcz coat of arms comes from 1665.

The former Norbertine convent was a brick building from the first half of the 17th century; it was renovated in 1779. After dissolution of the convent by the Austrian authorities in 1803, some of its buildings, including the current Olszewski College at ul. Olszewskiego and the building at ul. Gołębia 20, were transferred to the Jagiellonian University, and the rest of the complex, that is, the two houses from the side of ul. Wiślna, was handed over to the Basilian fathers in 1808. On the ground floor of Olszewski College, there is a barrel vaulted former convent refectory decorated with a hierogram of Christ and Mary, episcopal insignia of St Augustine and St Norbert, the date of 1644, and the coats of arms of Brochwicz (of Abbess Dorota Kątska) and Leliw (of the Zwierzyniec provost, Mikołaj Ścirski).

The convent building from the side of ul. Wiślna was erected in parallel to the construction of the entire Norbertine complex. Currently, it is partially reconstructed. It is a one-storey building with an attic and a line of arcaded panels.

The structure can be accessed from the outside all year round, inside during the services.

Author of the note Olga Dyba, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 26/03/2017

Bibliography

  • Dyba O., Folder – Kościół św. Norberta. Małopolskie Dni Dziedzictwa, Kraków 2008.
  • Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce. Vol. IV, Miasto Kraków, part III kościoły i klasztory Śródmieścia, 2. Warszawa 1978.

Category: church

Architecture: nieznana

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_12_BK.206033, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_12_BK.407028