Kościół pw. Świętego Bernardyna ze Sieny
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Stare Miasto district. Date according to Wikidata: 1680. A listed monument (heritage register). Run by: Zakon bernardynów.
History
The beginnings of the Bernardine monastery in Stradom go back to 1453. That year St John of Capistrano, a preacher from the Observant branch of the Franciscan order, came to Kraków at the invitation of King Casimir Jagiellon and Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki. In Poland this reformed branch of the Friars Minor was known as the Bernardines. Oleśnicki obtained the estate in Stradom from his brother Jan, the Voivode of Sandomierz, and handed it over to the friars. After the cardinal's death, work on the new church was overseen by Jan Długosz, and the funds were provided by Jan Hińcza of Rogów, the Castellan of Sandomierz.
The Gothic body of the church was completely rebuilt in 1645-1647, but the Swedish Deluge left it in ruins. Today's early Baroque church was built in 1659-1680 to a design by Krzysztof Mieroszewski. It is a three-aisled basilica with a transept and a twin-towered facade, and the vault of the nave and the chancel is decorated with stucco. The Chapel of St Anne holds a late Baroque altar with a late 15th-century figure of St Anne with the Virgin and Child, probably attributed to the workshop of Veit Stoss. The Chapel of St Simon of Lipnica has an altar-mausoleum from 1662, and its window features a stained-glass window with scenes from the saint's life designed by Józef Mehoffer.
The high altar and four side altars were made in 1758-1766. Their paintings were created by Franciszek Lekszycki, a friar who lived in this monastery and drew on prints, sketches and canvases by Rubens and van Dyck. At Easter the monstrance in the Holy Sepulchre is surrounded by a Golgotha painted by Tadeusz Popiel in 1911. The painting came to Kraków after the Second World War from the Bernardine church in Lviv. The only reminder of the former cemetery by the church today is a figure of Our Lady on a column, standing on the corner of Stradomska and Bernardyńska Streets.
Did you know?
The church's dome is hidden under the roof, which, it is believed, was meant to protect it from cannon fire from Wawel Hill if it had risen above the roof of the church.