Holy Cross Chapel (Wawel)

Holy Cross Chapel
	View from the west
Construction year:	1467
Inauguration:	1477
Style elements :	Gothic , baroque
Client:	Catholic Church
Location:	50 ° 3 '16.2 " N , 19 ° 56' 6" E Coordinates: 50 ° 3 '16.2 " N , 19 ° 56' 6" E
Address:	Wawel ; Krakow ; Lesser Poland , Poland
Purpose:	Roman Catholic burial church
Diocese :	Krakow

View from the south

Right of the main entrance

The Holy Cross Chapel is one of the 19 chapels that surround Kraków's Cathedral . It is also called the Jagiellonian Chapel. It is consecrated to the Holy Cross and the Holy Spirit.

history

The chapel was donated in 1467 by King Casimir IV Jagiellone as a burial chapel for himself and his wife Queen Elisabeth von Habsburg . The Byzantine frescoes, the two Gothic triptychs and the Gothic choir stalls date from 1470. The tomb of Casimir IV and his wife was created by Veit Stoss . The Byzantine frescoes were painted over in the 16th and 18th centuries and the tomb of Kajetan Sołtyk was added in the 18th century. The Byzantine frescoes were restored in 1870 by Izydor Jabłoński , 1904–1905 by Julian Makarewicz and 1947–1951 by Rudolf Kozłowski . The latter also opened the king's tomb.

crypt

The following were buried in the crypt below the chapel:

inner space

The Byzantine frescoes by Ruthenian artists of the Middle Ages on the Gothic vault are often found in Poland - see also Lublin Castle Chapel . The Holy Cross Chapel is a particularly beautiful example of this combination. The Art Nouveau stained glass windows go back to Józef Mehoffer and Sławomir Odrzywolski . The royal tombs are from Veit Stoss from Nuremberg and Jörg Huber from Passau. The tomb of Kajetan Sołtyk was created by Chrystian Piotr Aigner . The Gothic Trinity Triptych was created by the unknown master of the Trinity Triptych and the Mary Triptych, Stanisław Durink .