St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist's Church

Just the very position of the church – at an angle and out of the line of ul. św. Jana– proves that it dates from before the City’s Charter (i.e. from before 1257). This is further attested by the remnants of the 12th-century Romanesque walls discovered in 1962 in the bottom part of the nave and in the apse of the crypt. The Church owes its present, baroque form to the reconstruction that took place in the mid-17th century, when the new façade and vaulting were added, and the presumably Gothic buttresses that must have existed earlier were reinforced.

In the first half of the 18th century, the Convent of the Sisters of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary was built adjacent to the church with the participation of Kacper Bażanka. Besides the nunnery, the building also housed one of Poland’s oldest girls schools, whose most famous graduate was Helena Modrzejewska, the actress known to the English-speaking world as Helena Modjeska. At the same time, the church was renovated and slightly expanded.
The single-aisle interior of the church received baroque decoration. There is an altar of note with a miraculous painting of the Madonna dating back to the 16th century. Suspended by the altar are the most unusual votive gifts: two pairs of iron manacles with chains. They were offered in the 17th century by a prisoner sentenced to death. When he was praying here before the execution, calling for the help of Our Lady, the manacles miraculously fell off his hands, and he was freed. From that day, the icon acquired the name of Our Lady of Ransom of Slaves.