Cerkiew pw. Podwyższenia Krzyża Świętego
Churches of Kraków
Orthodox church, Stare Miasto district. A listed monument (heritage register).
History
The Baroque building on Wiślna Street was built between 1636 and 1643 as the Church of St Norbert, to serve the Norbertine sisters. When the Austrian authorities dissolved the convents, the nuns left it, and on 26 February 1808 the church became the property of the Greek Catholic parish.
At the end of the 19th century the parish priest, Father Ivan Borsuk, together with the parishioners, had a masonry iconostasis installed in the church - the most important element of the interior in the Eastern rite. It was designed by Tadeusz Stryjeński, and the icons were painted by Władysław Rossowski, a pupil of Jan Matejko, based on Matejko's designs.
In 1947 the communist authorities dissolved the parish. A few years later the church was given to the Salettine Fathers, and the iconostasis was dismantled and handed over to the archives of the Jan Matejko Museum. Only in 1998 did the Greek Catholic community recover the church, and the Salettines moved out by the end of 2001. The historic iconostasis, recovered after years of effort, was reconstructed, restored and set up again; in November 2004 it was blessed by Archbishop Jan Martyniak, Metropolitan of Przemyśl and Warsaw. In 2007 a pastoral group for Ukrainian students began meeting at the parish.
Did you know?
In a room next to the porch you can see a second iconostasis, the work of Jerzy Nowosielski from the 1960s. For many years, from 1958 to 1998, it served the parish in the chapel of St Catherine's Church, where the Greek Catholic community was hosted by the Augustinians.