Kościół pw. Matki Boskiej Dobrej Rady
Churches of Kraków
Parish church (Roman Catholic), Bieżanów-Prokocim district. A parish is a community of believers tied to a particular church.
History
The story of the church in Prokocim begins with an estate which, in 1909, Anna Jerzmanowska, the widow of Erazm Jerzmanowski, sold to the Augustinian order. In 1911 a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary, whom the Augustinians venerate as Our Lady of Good Counsel, was blessed here. At the start of 1917, on 1 January to be exact, a new Prokocim parish was carved out of the parish in Bieżanów, and its first parish priest was the Augustinian Wilhelm Gaczek. For years the chapel served as the parish church. Today it is the rectoral church of St Nicholas of Tolentino, next to the Anna and Erazm Jerzmanowski Park.
Construction of the present church began in the early 1930s to a design by Zygmunt Gawlik. The foundation stone was blessed on 6 May 1934 by Archbishop Adam Stefan Sapieha. By 1938, however, only the chancel with the sacristy and a chapel had been built, and work was halted. It resumed in 1948 to a new design by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz. Archbishop Eugeniusz Baziak blessed the church on 24 November 1957, the high altar was blessed in 1964, and the tower was completed in 2017.
The building is a three-aisled hall church in the Modernist style. The façade with its arcaded portico is crowned by a triangular gable, and above the portico you can see a round stained-glass window showing Our Lady of Good Counsel. The interior was designed by Wiktor Zin, who created the high altar and the stained glass, and Zdzisław Pabisiak. The side aisles hold Stations of the Cross in the form of reliefs by Karol Muszkiet.
Did you know?
In 2017, on the 100th anniversary of the parish, Archbishop Marek Jędraszewski crowned the painting of Our Lady of Good Counsel with episcopal crowns.