Kapliczka Boga Ojca
Wayside Shrines
Wayside shrine, Podgórze district. Wayside shrines were often raised out of gratitude, to commemorate events, or to ask for a safe journey.
History
The Shrine of God the Father stands on Wielicka Street, in front of the Old Podgórze Cemetery, and is counted among Kraków's lanterns of the dead. Such structures had openings at the top in which a light was placed: small lamps, oil lamps or torches.
The shrine has not always stood in this spot. It was originally near the junction of Wielicka and Robotnicza Streets. When the Germans cleared part of the cemetery for a railway line, the road layout there changed, and after the war the shrine was set up where it stands today. The cemetery itself was most probably established between 1784 and 1794. In 1942 the Germans levelled about a quarter of its area with bulldozers while building the railway line.
Did you know?
Kraków's only Gothic lantern of the dead, regarded as the most impressive, is a column about 3.5 metres tall with a pointed roof. In 1871 it was moved to St Nicholas's Church. Before that, from the 14th century, it warned people against entering a hospital for lepers.