Kościół pw. Ecce Homo
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Prądnik Czerwony district. A place of pilgrimage (shrine).
History
The church on Woronicza Street in Prądnik Czerwony stands next to the General House of the Congregation of the Albertine Sisters. The congregation was founded by St Brother Albert, and it is his relics, together with those of Blessed Sister Bernardyna Jabłońska, that rest in this church. The building was designed by Marzena Popławska and Wojciech Kosiński and was built in 1982-1985. Cardinal Franciszek Macharski raised it to the rank of sanctuary on 23 November 1997.
The heart of the church is the painting Ecce Homo, the work of Adam Chmielowski, that is Brother Albert himself. According to Leon Wyczółkowski, the painter began it in 1879 in Lviv. The canvas shows the scourged Christ in half-length, with a crown of thorns on his head and a reed in his hand. The red robe falling from his shoulders forms the shape of a large heart on his chest. The painting is considered the artist's finest work and one of the best religious paintings in Polish art. The painter's cousin, Bolesław Krzyżanowski, posed for it.
The canvas had a long journey to Kraków. Before 1904 the artist gave it to the Archbishop of Lviv, Andrzej Szeptycki, and years later the painting ended up in a storeroom on the outskirts of Kyiv. The Albertine Sisters tried for a long time to get it back. In 1978 it was exchanged for a painting by the Ukrainian artist Ivan Trush. The painting was placed in the altar of the church on Woronicza Street on 17 June 1985.
Did you know?
Years later Chmielowski recalled that he had treated this painting "like the worst bungler", because the Metropolitan pestered him so much that he finished it only to be left in peace.