Poland's Official Travel Website
Poland's Official Travel Website
Parish Church (fara)
St Stanisław the Bishop’s Parish Church is a superior example of Baroque architecture. Initially the Jesuit temple, its construction proceeded in stages since 1651 till the middle of the 18th century and required the demolition of some selected fragments of city walls as well as fi lling the moat. The marvelous main altar and entrance portal was designed by Pompeo Ferrari. The building is a three-nave church with galleries over the lateral naves and massive columns in the main nave. The church strikes as monumental, pompous, literally saturated with all sorts of ornaments (e.g. sculptures, paintings, moulding) yet, all these elements instantiate an ideal example of artistic symbiosis. The nearly hypnotic play of light in the church gives the impression of its inside being slightly submerged in subtle fog.
St Peter and Paul’s Cathedral in Ostrów Tumski
St Peter and Paul’s Cathedral is located in Ostrów Tumski, the oldest part of Poznan. It is associated with the origins of Poland and the Polish church. _ e building witnessed the very beginnings of the State’s history and serves as the place of eternal rest for the Piast dynasty: Mieszko I, Bolesław Chrobry, Mieszko II, Kazimierz Odnowiciel and Przemysł II. Although the vaults of the cathedral still hide the relics of pre-Romanesque and Romanesque architecture (including the fragments of baptismal fonts and supposed tombstones of Mieszko I and Bolesław Chrobry), the building’s present shape resembles a 15th century three-nave basilica with a passage behind the chancel and the surrounding circular arrangement of chapels.
The Golden Chapel
The damage resulting from the World War II, particularly severe in the main nave, had to be supplemented with various elements of interior decoration from Silesia, such as a Gothic altar from Slaska Góra (dated at 1512), 16th-century stalls (from Zgorzelec) or a 18th-century baptismal font and pulpit. The cathedral’s lateral chapels, with the famous Chapel of the Kings (founded in the 19th century from the society’s donations) survived the war relatively unscathed. In one of the remaining chapels, heavily ornamented with Byzantine decorations, a neo-Gothic sarcophagus of the fi rst Polish rulers was placed. The sarcophagus has elements of Bolesław Chrobry’s Gothic tombstone including the sculptured fi gures of St Peter and Jesus Christ, founded by king Kazimierz Wielki, as well as the statues of both rulers.
Polska Organizacja
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ul. Chałubińskiego 8
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