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Complex of the Parish Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Saint James the Lesser and the former monastery of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre - Zabytek.pl

Complex of the Parish Church of the Holy Sepulchre and Saint James the Lesser and the former monastery of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre


monastery 1233-1293 Miechów

Address
Miechów, Warszawska 1

Location
woj. małopolskie, pow. miechowski, gm. Miechów - miasto

The complex is one of the key architectural monuments in Małopolska. It contains buildings with Romanesque traces, developed in Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. The complex occupied by the Order of the Holy Sepulchre was the first in Europe to represent the idea and promote the worship of the Holy Sepulchre.

History

The monastery complex of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre was funded in 1163 by Jaks Gryfit. Tradition has it that Gryfit brought sacks of earth from Golgotha in Jerusalem to Miechów and built a small, wooden (?) church this earth. Next, he invited the monks from the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem to settle there. According to accounts, the temple stood in place of today’s Chapel of the Tomb of Christ. The Order of the Holy Sepulchre stayed in Miechów for almost 700 years, from 1163 to 1819, spreading the veneration of the Holy Sepulchre. 

The present-day Church of the Holy Sepulchre and St James the Lesser was built as a Romanesque, stone temple around 1233-1293. After a fire in 1379, it was rebuilt in between 1379 and around 1410. The Romanesque sections were later used to expand into a Gothic church. Its plan and spatial arrangement were shaped in that period. It was altered during the Renaissance and Mannerism in the years 1611-1616, which is evident in a treasury chamber over the sacristy. Another, late Baroque reconstruction around the years 1749-1777 gave the temple its present look. At that time, the façade, the body, and the architecture of the complex were decided along with complete decorations. A porch was added from the south. After consecration in 1802, the tower was crowned with a cupola with the emblem of the religious order; the figure of the Risen Christ was added in contemporary times.  The monastery building was given its current shape over several phases. The most important one fell to the years 1525-1542. In that period, the complex was restored to its form from the years 1385-1393. The project was carried out by a Kraków stonemason workshop associated with Francesco Fiorentino and Bartolomeo Berecci. At the beginning of the 17th century, the upper floor was added. The Chapel of the Tomb of Christ was erected at the turn of the 1520s and its wooden roofing in the 18th century. The “guest house” was opened in the 1640s. The Mannerist style was obliterated during the reconstruction after the dissolution of the monastery in 1819. Today, it houses a court and an art gallery in the basement. The eclectic, multi-storey building was erected in 1907 in place of the former Baroque abbot’s palace built after 1745. Today, the building is occupied by a court and the prosecutor’s office. The late Baroque residence of the order generals was completed in the second half of the 18th century. Currently, it houses the Museum the Miechów Region. The tower with a fragment of the 16th-century defensive wall surrounding the complex was reconstructed in 1980 and incorporated into a clergy house that had replaced demolished farm buildings.

Description

The religious complex adjoins the north-west corner of Miechów’s market square. The area of the complex has a rectangular shape, its sides being mapped out by the streets radiating from the marketplace: ul. Warszawska from the east, ul. Miechowity from the north, ul. Janów Górny from the west, and ul. Podzamcze from the south. 

The church is a three-nave stone and brick basilica. It resembles the churches of Kraków. It has an elongated chancel closed on three sides. The tower adjoins the west span of the church body from the south. The sacristy is on the north side of the chancel. The chancel has a porch added it in the 18th century. The temple has a late Baroque façade and décor. It is covered by a wooden copper sheet roof. The only traces of the oriented, stone late Romanesque church from around 1233 are a part of the square façade with a four-plane rosette and a section of walls in the sides of the chancel. The Romanesque quarry stone was used in the vertical extension of the Gothic tower.  Also, wall paintings have survived from the Gothic era: Crucifixion (after 1346) in an arcaded niche of the west church wall and playing angels against the background of a plant motif from around 1460 in the tower lowermost level. The work of the Kraków Renaissance workshop associated with Bartolomeo Berecci and his collaborators has survived: it is an arcaded, Mannerist portal with the date of 1534 and a treasury chamber. The late Baroque interior made of marbled and gilded stucco is also there, mainly made by Wojciech Rojowski. The Renaissance Chapel of the Tomb of Christ, connected with the east wing of the monastery, is built into the courtyard. It is the central element of the complex in terms of composition and ideology behind it. It was built by Italian artists who imitated the Wawel chapels of Bishop Piotr Tomicki and King Sigismund; at the same time, it alludes to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. It has a square plan and a domed ceiling with a painted decoration corresponding to the sculptural décor of Sigismund’s Chapel. At its heart, there is a stone Tomb of Christ on a square plan. Its façades with panel divisions are fashioned after Sigismund’s Chapel. They have a wooden Baroque head. The monastery building is a symmetrical, four-wing complex with a cloister around a rectangular courtyard. It is a one-storey structure with late Gothic and Renaissance stonework, and an upper floor added at the beginning of the 17th century. 

The site is open to visitors.

Author of the note Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 4/07/2014

 

Bibliography

  • Barczyński W., Bazylika Grobu Bożego w Miechowie, Miechów 2002
  • Barczyński W., Małopolski szlak bożogrobców, Miechów 2009
  • Chrzanowski T., Kornecki M., Sztuka Ziemi Krakowskiej, Kraków 1982
  • Dyba O., Majka M., Zabytki architektury i budownictwa w Polsce. Vol. 18, part 2, Województwo krakowskie, Warszawa 1995
  • Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. I, Województwo krakowskie, no. 8, Powiat miechowski, Warszawa 1953
  • Krasnowolski B., Leksykon zabytków architektury Małopolski, Warszawa 2013
  • Pęckowski Z., Miechów, studia z dziejów miasta i ziemi miechowskiej do 1914, Kraków 1967

Category: monastery

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_12_ZE.65322, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_12_ZE.31435