Kościół pw. Świętego Augustyna i Świętego Jana Chrzciciela w Krakowie
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Zwierzyniec district. A listed monument (heritage register). Run by: Zakon Sióstr Norbertanek.
History
The Norbertine nuns' church in Zwierzyniec, together with the convent, forms the largest historic complex in the city after Wawel. The convent was founded in the second half of the 12th century. Its founder was Agnes of Babenberg, wife of Prince Władysław II the Exile, who brought a group of nuns from Doksany led by the magistra (superior) Hildgunda. The exact date of the foundation is unknown, as no documents survive, and the possible time frame is 1144-1146. When the princely couple had to leave the country, the convent lost its patron. In 1164 the right of patronage passed to the knight and crusader Jaksa Gryfita, whose daughter Weruka became magistra here.
The Tatar raids of 1242 and 1260 almost completely destroyed the Romanesque church and convent. The oldest surviving fragments date from the 13th century, for example the Romanesque portal in the porch beneath the tower. The church was rebuilt in brick in 1255-1259. The walls and towers visible today date from the time of Władysław Jagiełło, when the convent still lay outside the city gates and served a defensive purpose. The church burnt in 1527 and 1587, and it owes its present appearance to a major rebuilding in 1596-1626, when the convent was led by Abbess Dorota Kątska; the work was directed by Jan Trewano and Jan Petrini.
The interior furnishings date from the 18th century. They include Baroque side altars, among them the altar of Blessed Bronisława with a reliquary and a painting by Wojciech Eliasz-Radzikowski, a Neoclassical colonnade around the chancel designed by Fr Sebastian Alojzy Sierakowski, and an image of St John the Baptist in the apse by Władysław Łuszczkiewicz. In 1903-1910 the Rudawa river was regulated to protect this part of the city from flooding. The new river mouth cut off some of the convent buildings, and the convent ended up in a hollow, which sparked protests from heritage lovers. Every year on Easter Monday a church fair called Emaus is held by the convent, and in the octave of Corpus Christi the Lajkonik stops here during his procession.
Did you know?
According to legend, the convent bell was funded by a merchant who was the only one to survive fleeing from the Tatars into the current of the Vistula, and every casting of the bell came out cracked. The Bell of the Drowned is said to have rung ten times every evening, calling the nuns to pray for the souls of the drowned, until in 1917 the Austrians requisitioned it to make cannons.