Kościół pw. Świętego Judy Tadeusza
Churches of Kraków
Parish church (Roman Catholic), Czyżyny district. A parish is a community of believers tied to a particular church.
History
The Church of St Jude Thaddeus stands on the Czyżyny estate, at 6 Wężyka Street. In 1935 Cardinal Adam Stefan Sapieha entrusted its construction to Father Józef Zastawniak, planning for a separate parish to grow up around the new church in time. Work began in 1936: the foundation stone was blessed on 16 October, and the first Mass was celebrated as early as 25 December - on the spot where the chancel was only just rising.
By 1939 the shell of the building was finished, but the outbreak of war put an end to plans for a tower. The war did not, however, stop work on the interior: furnishings continued to be gathered, and in 1942 Archbishop Sapieha blessed the church during a canonical visitation of the Mogiła parish, to which Czyżyny then belonged. In January 1945, during the operation to liberate Kraków, a shell fired from a Soviet tank damaged the west wall, destroyed the stained-glass windows and brought down the sacristy wall. A separate parish for the former villages of Czyżyny and Łęg was established on 15 April 1951. In 1995 the church was consecrated again by Cardinal Franciszek Macharski.
The building has a three-nave basilica plan. The main nave is covered by a barrel vault with lunettes, and the chancel ends in a semicircle. In the chancel you can see mosaics with portraits of Polish saints and blesseds. The wall paintings show scenes from the life of Christ, and the stained-glass windows of the side naves depict saints and events described in the Bible.
Did you know?
The tower, planned from the very beginning, was added only in 1989-1991. It is 30 metres tall and topped by a four-metre cross. It houses three bronze bells from 1986, named St Jude Thaddeus, Mary and John Paul II.