Kościół pw. Matki Bożej Ostrobramskiej
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Prądnik Czerwony district. Run by: Zakon pijarów.
History
The Church of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, run by the Piarist order, stands on the Wieczysta estate at Meissnera Street 20. For a long time pastoral care in Wieczysta relied on modest chapels. After the war Mass was celebrated in a kindergarten run from 1945 by the Handmaid Sisters of Dębica. In 1953 Bishop Franciszek Jop established this chapel as a public one, and the curia announced that its patron would be Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn. The state authorities, however, banned Mass from being celebrated there. In 1971 efforts began to obtain a house on Ostatnia Street, which was adapted as a chapel, and in October 1978, despite the lack of official permission, Fr Jan Frączek, unwilling to wait any longer, put up a large roofed structure next to it that could hold 700 people.
The breakthrough came at the start of the 1980s. During Mass on Błonia Park on 22 May 1983, John Paul II blessed the foundation stone for the church in Wieczysta, and on 4 August Cardinal Franciszek Macharski signed the decree establishing the parish and appointed Fr Jan Frączek as its first parish priest. In September 1985 a new pastoral building with a chapel was blessed, and the construction of the church took almost nine years. The first Masses were celebrated there on 11 November 1994, and five days later Cardinal Macharski blessed the church on the day of the parish feast. The consecration took place in 2008.
The church was designed by Zdzisław Nowakowski. It is built on a circular plan 50 metres in diameter, is about 30 metres high, and with the tower reaches 55 metres. It can hold 3,000 worshippers. The roof resembles the crown of Our Lady, and the interior is shaped like a star. One of its two chapels is modelled on the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius: the painting there is a copy of the Vilnius image measuring 2 by 1.63 metres, and the chapel was blessed on 30 April 2001 by Cardinal Macharski. In 2016 a pipe organ was installed in the church.
Did you know?
Before the Gate of Dawn Chapel was built, Mary was venerated here in the form of a small straw image made by one of the parishioners, who came from the Vilnius region. The image is now carried as a processional banner during processions.