Kościół pw. Stygmatów Świętego Franciszka z Asyżu w Krakowie
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Prądnik Biały district.
History
In 1895 in Bronowice Wielkie, Jan Władysław Fischer, a merchant and owner of the local estate, built a neo-Gothic chapel dedicated to St Francis and St Ladislaus the King. A dozen or so years later, in 1909, Franciscans from Kraków's St Casimir friary bought a house with a garden here and took care of the chapel. Cardinal Jan Puzyna set up a parish outpost there.
As early as 1912 the friars planned a larger church in which the chapel was to serve as the chancel, but the outbreak of the First World War thwarted the plan. A temporary barrack was added to the chapel, and in 1933 it was replaced by a larger wooden extension. Together the two parts served the faithful for nearly forty years. Efforts to obtain permission for an extension began in 1973, and the authorities granted it in 1975. Immediately afterwards construction began on a postmodern church designed by the architect Antoni Mazur. On 26 September 1976 Cardinal Karol Wojtyła blessed and laid the foundation stone, which came from Mount La Verna in Italy. The old chapel became the chancel of the new church. In 1979 Cardinal Franciszek Macharski consecrated the building in its unfinished state, and he did so again in 2002.
A complex of buildings grew up around the church. The friary was built in 1982-1985, and the St Bonaventure Higher Seminary in 1987-92. In 2000 a bell tower in the form of a steel and reinforced-concrete tripod with three baskets for bells was put up between the church and the friary, also designed by Mazur.
Inside are a mosaic of "The Last Supper" on the apse wall and stained-glass windows by Regina Rychłowska-Molińska from 1959 in the chancel windows. On the chancel wall hangs an 1893 painting by Tomasz Antoni Lisiewicz showing Francis and King Ladislaus kneeling before Our Lady. It originally adorned the altar of the old chapel. A copy of the San Damiano Cross from Assisi has been placed in the chancel arch, and one of the side altars holds the painting of Our Lady of Bronowice by Włodzimierz Tetmajer.
Did you know?
Tetmajer painted Our Lady of Bronowice in 1916 as Mary in Bronowice folk dress, holding the Child in her arms. His daughters served as models: the eldest, Jadwiga, who is Isia from Stanisław Wyspiański's "Wesele" ("The Wedding"), and the youngest, Krystyna. The painter gave the work to Zygmunt Janicki, who was then provincial of the Reformed Franciscans. This happened towards the end of the First World War.