Bazylika Przenajświętszej Trójcy
Churches of Kraków
Minor basilica (Roman Catholic), Stare Miasto district. Date according to OpenStreetMap: 13th century. The title of minor basilica is granted to churches by the Pope. A place of pilgrimage (shrine). A listed monument (heritage register). Run by: Zakon dominikanów.
History
The Basilica of the Holy Trinity, the Dominican church at Stolarska Street 12, is a double sanctuary: of Our Lady of the Rosary and of St Hyacinth (Jacek Odrowąż). In 1222 the Dominicans came to Kraków from Bologna together with St Hyacinth. They were invited by Bishop Iwo Odrowąż, who handed over to them the partly wooden, partly masonry parish church of the Holy Trinity and moved the parish to the new St Mary's Church. The church was consecrated on 12 March 1223. After the Mongol invasion of 1241 the friars began building a new Gothic church and monastery. It was originally a three-aisled hall church, which was converted into a basilica at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries.
The church suffered its heaviest blow in the great fire of Kraków in 1850: the interior burned down, apart from some of the chapels, and the vault of the nave collapsed. The rebuilding was led in 1850-1884 by the architect Teofil Żebrawski. On the morning of 12 April 1855, when the supports were removed from under the arches of the main nave vault, part of the vault and walls collapsed again. The disaster shocked Kraków's public, so in 1856 a special conservation committee was set up. The church was reconsecrated in 1884, and it has held the title of minor basilica since 1957.
Today's church is a three-aisled Gothic building of brick and stone, with an elongated chancel. Prince Leszek the Black, who died in 1288, is buried by the high altar. Jerzy Zbaraski, castellan of Kraków, founded the Zbaraski Chapel as a family mausoleum; it was built in 1628-33. It has an elliptical dome, rare at that time, and an interior of black marble. In St Hyacinth's Chapel the saint's remains were placed in a late Baroque tomb on the altar. Since 1983 Teofila Sobieska, mother of King John III Sobieski, and his brother Marek have been buried in the Rosary Chapel.
On the north side the church adjoins the monastery, with cloisters surrounding its garths. The cloisters around the first of them are known as Kraków's campo santo, because many tombstones and memorial plaques are set into their walls. The oldest part of the complex is the Romanesque refectory. The Dominicans' collections are on display in the Dominican Museum, opened in 2022.
Did you know?
Here you will find the bronze plaque of the eminent humanist Filip Kallimach (Callimachus), who died in 1496. It was made to a design by Veit Stoss.