Cerkiew Zaśnięcia Najświętszej Marii Panny
Churches of Kraków
Orthodox church, Stare Miasto district. In an Orthodox church the altar area is separated from the nave by the iconostasis, a wall of icons. A listed monument (heritage register).
History
The Orthodox Church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Virgin Mary is a parish church set up in a townhouse at Szpitalna Street 24. From the outside it does not look like a traditional Orthodox church, but care was taken during the conversion to meet the requirements of Orthodox worship. The original building was erected in the second half of the 14th century, and before the war it housed the Ahawat Raim synagogue.
The Orthodox parish in Kraków was founded in 1918 as a garrison church of the Polish Army. Services were first held in a former riding school on Lubicz Street, and later in the Great Hall of the barracks on Na Groblach Square. When the Second World War broke out, the Germans evicted the parish from the barracks. The community found a new home in the devastated Ahawat Raim synagogue, then used as a carpentry workshop: after talks with the building's new owner it took possession of it and, after renovation, set up a church here. After the war the Jewish Religious Congregation laid claim to the building, wanting to use it as a garrison synagogue for Jewish soldiers and officers. The claims were rejected and the building became the property of the parish.
At the end of the 1960s, on the initiative of Father Lachocki and the church warden Michał Kubicki, renovation and conversion work began, completed in 1984; the renewed church was blessed by Metropolitan Sawa. The hand of Jerzy Nowosielski can be seen in the interior. In front of the stairs of the hall, which also serves as the narthex, stands a wall with arched openings decorated with his painting of the Mother of God among the prophets. In the so-called Gothic hall, valued for its artistic merit, stands his impressive iconostasis, with icons and a Golgotha beside it. Behind the altar are stained-glass windows by Kraków artists. The refectory on the second floor is decorated with paintings by Nowosielski and Bogdan Kotarba depicting a gallery of Polish saints. After a further renovation the church was blessed on 24 November 2018.
Did you know?
The iconostasis for the church in the barracks on Na Groblach Square came from a closed-down Orthodox church in Miechów. The parish later added icons to it, both old ones and newly painted ones.