Kościół pw. Boskiego Zbawiciela
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Dębniki district. Date according to Wikidata: 1976.
History
The Church of the Divine Saviour stands in Zakrzówek on Świętego Jacka Street and is part of the religious house of the Salvatorians, the Society of the Divine Saviour. It is a rectoral church and belongs to the parish of St Stanislaus Kostka in Dębniki. It was built in 1971-1976 to a design by Janusz Gawor, next to the monastery buildings, on which work had begun as early as the 1920s. It was consecrated on 26 September 1976 by Cardinal Karol Wojtyła.
The church is in a Postmodernist spirit and has no façade. From the outside it stands out for its north side wall with a row of tall, slender windows, and for its steel bell tower. The interior has a single nave, and the eye is drawn to the figure of Christ the Saviour carved by Anna Praxmayer in 1975-1976. The windows on one side are filled with stained glass designed by Witold Ostrzałek at the end of the 20th century: at the bottom, the earth with people heading upwards, and above, heaven with the saints. The opposite wall is decorated with a mosaic of the Apostles with Our Lady and St Joseph, designed in the 1970s by the Kraków artist Ewa Żygulska, clearly inspired by Byzantine models. The only stained-glass window on the right side of the nave shows the founder of the Salvatorians, Father Francis Mary Jordan.
Did you know?
By the entrance to the sacristy hangs a bronze plaque by Czesław Dźwigaj, unveiled in 1987. It recalls that the church was consecrated by Karol Wojtyła, later John Paul II, who in 1940 worked in the quarries at Zakrzówek.