St Florian’s Church

The relics of St Florian, a hero of the Crusades, were brought to Poland at the end of the 12th century. The legend says that the cortege bringing them from Rome had to stop at the place where the church was later built as the oxen drawing the cart did not want to go any further. This was considered a sign that the church was to be built on the spot. Little is known about the first Romanesque church, funded by Bishop Gedko soon after 1184. The settlements around the church quickly developed into a hamlet which was the seed from which the town of Kleparz (originally called Florencja from the name of the saint) grew. The town had already received its charter in 1366.

Unfortunately, its situation just behind the defensive walls on the side of the city from which Kraków had always expected the greatest danger to come resulted in the church being repeatedly destroyed. After being ruined by the Swedes in 1655, it was rebuilt in 1677-1686 as a baroque structure. It burnt down twice again in the following century: by accident in 1755, and during the fights between the Confederates of Bar and the Russians in 1768.

The façade, flanked by two towers with 18th-century chapels to their sides, is preceded by a neo-Baroque porch from the early 20th century. The three-aisled interior has preserved a Gothic chancel with barrel vaulting. The neo-rococo stucco decoration by Jan Szczepkowski was applied in 1907, and the murals on the walls were repainted by Wacław Taranczewski in 1965. Most worthy of attention among the other furnishings (predominantly from the 18th century) is the late Gothic triptych altar of St John the Baptist brought here from St Mary’s Church. A reliquary from 1365 captured in the Battle of Grunwald and presented by King Ladislaus (Władysław) Jagiełło is kept in the treasury.

In 1949-1951, Karol Wojtyła, later Pope John Paul II, was a curate of this parish.