St Barbara’s Church

The church was built around 1400, most probably as a cemetery chapel: St Barbara was venerated as the patron saint of a good death. It replaced the former mortuary. In 1488-1518, it had a late-Gothic Garden of Olives added, inside which there stands a group of sculptures chiselled by the Wit Stwosz (Veit Stoss) related group of stonemasons. In the 17th century, the Gothic church was redeveloped; the effects of that baroque transformation are visible from the side of the Small Market Square. At the same time, the church interior received a decidedly baroque appearance.

Father Jakub Wujek, the author of the late-16th century Polish translation of the Bible from Latin, found his last resting place under the church. His translation of the Bible remained the official Polish translation for 350 years.

Adjacent to the church to the south is the Jesuit monastery. After the Order was disbanded in 1780, the building became a clinical hospital of the University where a surgeon, Professor Rafał Józef Czerwiakowski, conducted the first post-mortem in Kraków. For a century the monastery changed hands and use to be finally returned to the Jesuit Order in 1908.