St Adalbert's Church

Following tradition, the church was erected at the site where St Adalbert preached a sermon. The saint was ordered by Prince Boleslaus the Brave (Bolesław Chrobry) to go as a missionary to the territory adjacent to the Polish state. The price he paid for this was martyrdom, and his body was bought from the pagan tribe of the Prussians for its weight in gold. St Adalbert is one of the Catholic patron saints of Poland.

The fragments of the Romanesque walls of St Adalbert’s Church – preserved as exposed – provide the oldest piece of architecture in the Main Square. The diminutive church was probably already built at the start of the 11th century. It was situated in a fork of trading routes, well before the Main Square was laid out and the city given its charter. Most of the church surviving today comes from the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, at a time when the earlier church was refurbished. Fragments of Romanesque limestone walls with a characteristic arcaded portal and narrow windows are shown to be nearly 2 m (6.6 ft) below the level of today’s cobbles. This lets you imagine how greatly the surface of the Main Square has risen over the centuries.

Today’s image of this small temple is however strongly dominated by the later additions and reconstructions. Those in the baroque style in the early 17th century increased the height of the church and gave it a dome, and later ones in the 18th century appended the sacristy and the Chapel of St Vincent Kadłubek. Apart from the 15th-century crucifix, the furnishing is mostly baroque.


In the summer season (1 June – 30 September) it is possible to visit the exhibition dedicated to the history of the church and the Main Square in the church's underground. The exhibition open every day except Sundays 10am-6pm; tickets PLN 2/1.