Kościół pw. Nawrócenia Świętego Pawła
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Stare Miasto district. A listed monument (heritage register). Run by: Zgromadzenie Księży Misjonarzy.
History
The Church of the Conversion of St Paul stands at 6 Stradomska Street, in Stradom. The Congregation of the Mission of St Vincent de Paul was brought to Kraków from Chełmno in 1682 by Bishop Jan Małachowski, who at first housed them on Wawel Hill. The missionaries were to oversee the training of clerics at the diocesan seminary, so the bishop began buying property for them in Stradom with a church and a house in mind.
In 1693 the foundation stone of the church was laid, but further work only resumed in 1719, funded by the auxiliary bishop of Kraków Michał Szembek, with a changed concept for the whole. To a design by Kacper Bażanka, who died in January 1726, the church was completed in 1728 and the house in 1732. In the same year Bishop Michał Ignacy Kunicki consecrated the church. The façade, built of sandstone blocks with sculpted limestone elements, remained unfinished; only in 1960 did the architects Wiktor Zin and Stanisław Murczyński complete it with a triangular tympanum and attics above the chapels.
Inside, Bażanka used mirrors that make the space look wider and light it evenly. The high altar of black Dębnik marble was made in 1761-1762 and contains a painting from around 1756, attributed to Tadeusz Kuntze. In the niches of the nave stand ten figures of the Apostles, the work of Antoni Frączkiewicz, considered one of the more interesting examples of Baroque art in Kraków. The vault paintings were made in 1862-1864 under the direction of Izydor Jabłoński.
Did you know?
The missionaries' house holds a portrait of King Stefan Batory painted in 1583 by the court painter Marcin Kober. The painting came here from Wawel Cathedral.