Kościół pw. Świętego Jana Kantego
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Bronowice district. Architect: Krzysztof Bień.
History
The Widok estate, now part of Bronowice Nowe, was built in the 1970s by the main road out towards Katowice - without a church, because at that time the authorities did not grant permission to build churches on new estates. This changed in the 1980s: in 1981 the Mayor of Kraków allowed construction, and Cardinal Franciszek Macharski entrusted the organisation of the parish to Fr Jan Franczak. The parish was established on 19 June 1984, carved out of the parish of St Anthony of Padua in Bronowice Małe. For about seven years the faithful used the Chapel of St John of Kanty, which was put up in three months. By 1989 Mass was already being celebrated in the lower church, dedicated to Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn, and three years later in the upper church. The consecration took place in 2000, and the organ was blessed in 2004.
The design is by the architect Krzysztof Bień, who also drew up the original urban plan of the estate. The building recalls the architecture of Le Corbusier, especially the chapel at Ronchamp: the oval, overhanging roof spirals around a central cylindrical tower, and the dark grey walls of raw concrete are broken up only by rectangular windows. The interior has two levels - a low, intimate lower church with more than 300 seats and a spacious upper church that holds around 800 worshippers. In the upper church the suspended ribbed vault with optical fibres catches the eye; the Stations of the Cross in light wood were made by Elżbieta and Piotr Zbrożek, and the stained-glass windows were designed by Andrzej Dzięgielewski. In the baptismal chapel the font symbolises the waves of the Jordan and contains a stone brought from that river. The oval painting of the patron, St John of Kanty, dates from the 18th century and was a gift from Kraków's Collegiate Church of St Anne.
Did you know?
The vault of the upper church is meant to imitate a starry sky, and the whole building was intended to resemble the biblical ark.