Chronicler Jan Długosz credits Bishop Iwo Odrowąż with founding the church in 1221 or 1222, and the Mongol invasion destroyed it. A new early Gothic church was built on the remaining foundations from 1290 to 1300 and consecrated in 1320. It was rebuilt from 1355 to 1365 under Casimir III the Great, and the main body was completed in 1395 to 1397 with a new vault by Nicholas Wernher. The infobox gives completion as 1347.
The brick Gothic church is called one of the best examples of Polish Gothic. The tallest figure given is 262 feet (80 m). Veit Stoss carved the late Gothic wooden altarpiece at the end of the 15th century.
The interior was redone in late Baroque in the 18th century, and Tadeusz Stryjeński directed a neo-Gothic redesign from 1887 to 1891, with Jan Matejko's murals. A trumpet call, the hejnał, sounds hourly from the taller tower.
Comments