Kaplica pw. Błogosławionej Bronisławy
Wayside Shrines
Chapel, Zwierzyniec district. Date according to OpenStreetMap: 1856. A chapel is a small place of worship, often beside a cemetery, hospital or a larger church.
History
According to tradition, Blessed Bronisława had her hermitage on the hill at the foot of the Kościuszko Mound, and it was here that she ended her life. The memory of this retreat was kept alive by the Norbertine nuns. Under Abbess Zofia Urbańska, in 1702, it was decided to build a chapel on the spot, and Abbess Petronela Poniatowska rebuilt it in 1758-1759. In 1854 the chapel was demolished during the construction of Austrian fortifications around the mound. A new, Neo-Gothic chapel, designed by Feliks Księżarski, was begun in 1856 at the expense of the Austrian authorities and consecrated on 13 September 1861.
Did you know?
Abbess Petronela Poniatowska commissioned the painter Andrzej Radwański to create a series of paintings on the life of the Blessed. Next to the Baroque chapel stood a small house for hermits, who are mentioned in the 18th-century chronicles of the Norbertine convent. Today the chapel adjoins the mound on its western side and forms the gateway through which visitors climb to the top.