Kościół pw. Świętej Agnieszki
Churches of Kraków
Church (Roman Catholic), Stare Miasto district. A listed monument (heritage register).
History
The Church of St Agnes in Stradom is today a garrison church, but it began as a convent church. In 1459 Hińcza of Rogów, castellan of Sandomierz and administrator of the salt mines in Wieliczka, built a wooden church here dedicated to St Agnes and gave it to nuns living by the rule of St Francis of Assisi. Three fires burnt the wooden building to the ground, so in 1558 a church and convent of stone and brick were built in its place. On the feast of their patron saint, 21 January 1561, the Bernardine sisters took their vows of enclosure here.
Before the Swedish Deluge fires twice destroyed the church, and twice it was rebuilt. During the war with Sweden it burned down again. When the war ended, a new Baroque building was raised from the surviving Gothic walls, and its reconstruction was approved by the nobility of the Kraków voivodeship on 30 June 1658. The present church was built in 1660-1680. The Bernardine sisters lived here until the dissolution of the order in 1783, and on 11 August 1788 they moved to the Church of St Joseph on Poselska Street.
The partitions brought the building into decline. In 1801 it was turned into a storehouse, and at the beginning of the 20th century it was in private hands and used as a scrap-iron store. The Society of Lovers of Kraków's History and Monuments began efforts to buy it in 1906, but the Austrian authorities did not favour the plan; it finally succeeded only in 1926. Three years later the church was handed over to the military parish, which restored it to worship in 1932. During the Second World War the Germans gave it to the Lutherans, but after the war it returned to its rightful owners.
The high altar, designed by Bogdan Treter in 1932-1933, holds a painting of St Agnes from the mid-17th century, which was part of the original furnishings. On the right-hand side of the church, in a black marble sarcophagus, the ashes of General Józef Haller, brought back from Great Britain, were laid to rest on 23 April 1993. In front of the church stands a monument to General Władysław Sikorski, unveiled in 1990.
Did you know?
One of the votive plaques on the church walls lists by name Polish officers murdered in Katyń, Kharkiv, Ostashkov and Mednoye. It is adorned with an image of Our Lady of Katyń and with soil from the execution sites.