Kościół pw. Chrystusa Króla w Krakowie-Przegorzałach
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Zwierzyniec district. Architect: Wojciech Pietraszewski.
History
The Church of Christ the King is tucked away among the buildings of the Jesuit monastery in Przegorzały, on Zaskale Street. It is small and rectangular, with a flat ceiling, its façade facing the hillside, and it cannot be seen from the street below. Only the mission cross standing beside it shows what it is.
The Kraków Jesuits bought an estate in Przegorzały in 1888, then still a village outside Kraków, to make it a place of rest. In 1890 the architect Stanisław Krzyżanowski was commissioned to extend the villa and build the first chapel. In 1949 work began on enlarging the chapel to plans by Władysław Stupnicki. When the communist authorities tried to take the house away from the Jesuits, Cardinal Adam Sapieha created a parish in Przegorzały on 16 April 1950, and the order's chapel began to serve the residents of Bielany and Przegorzały as a parish church. In 1952 Dr Maria Spiss donated an oil painting by Józef Unierzyski for its altar, where it hung until 1967.
In 1967 the chapel was rebuilt for the third time, to a design by Wiktor Ostrzołek; this artist also made the stained-glass windows with scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The fourth extension, in 1970-1973, followed a plan by Wojciech Pietraszewski.
The appearance and interior were completed by residents of Przegorzały, the artists Helena and Roman Husarski, together with their daughter Joanna Husarska-Chmielarz and her husband. They made the ceramic Stations of the Cross, arranged as a frieze on the wall, and the mosaics outside: the Prayer in the Garden on the façade, and the Annunciation and the Last Judgement on the side walls. They also made the statue of Christ in the high altar.
Did you know?
The statue of Christ in the altar was meant to have interchangeable heads, depending on the liturgical season, and the artists prepared three, each with a different facial expression. Changing them proved too troublesome, so the Victorious Christ was left in the church for good, and one of the other heads has survived in the monastery.