Temple of Divine Providence
The Temple of Divine Providence (Polish: Świątynia Opatrzności Bożej ) is a Catholic church currently being built in the Wilanów district of Warsaw . The memorial is dedicated to thanks for the freedom and sovereignty of Poland . The crypt one is Pantheon big Poland ( Panteon Wielkich Polaków ) with the tombs of Jan Twardowski , Zdzislaw Peszkowski , Krzysztof Skubiszewski , Ryszard Kaczorowski , Józef Joniec , Zdzislaw Krol and Andrzej Kwaśnik and memorials to Pope John Paul II. And Jerzy Popieluszko . The history of the origin of the sanctuary goes back over 200 years.
history
On May 5, 1791, the Parliament of the Kingdom of Poland decided to build the Temple of Divine Providence as a vote for the adoption of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791 . Originally, the building was intended as a secular temple of the Greater Providence, according to the ideas of the Enlightenment. Due to the division of Poland by Prussia, Russia and Austria, the construction according to the project of the architect Jakub Kubicki did not take place. Only a fragment was built on the site of today's Botanical Garden in Ujazdowski Avenue.
After the regaining of Polish independence after the First World War , a competition for the project of the temple was announced in 1930. It was won by the architect Bohdan Pniewski . The temple was planned on the Mokotów field ( Pole Mokotowskie ). Because of the outbreak of the Second World War , the project remained.
After the system change in Poland in 1989 , the Sejm resolution of 1791 was finally renewed on October 23, 1998 . The site in the middle of the new Miasteczko Wilanów residential area , not far from the junction of the A2 motorway, was chosen as the location . An architecture competition was announced, which was won by the Warsaw architect Professor Marek Budzyński . He proposed the construction of an underground temple in the form of a mound, crowned with a star-shaped dome of light. The project was rated very highly by the experts, but it met with the displeasure of conservative believers who had wanted a conventional church building.
Nevertheless, the head of the Church of Poland, Cardinal Józef Glemp , initially decided to build the church according to the award-winning design. After a while he unexpectedly changed his mind and the architects Wojciech and Lech Szymborski were commissioned to build the church .
The Szymborski design is a cube-shaped building made of reinforced concrete on an 84 × 84 meter floor plan with a 30 meter high dome. It soon received the nickname "lemon squeezer". On May 2, 2002, the foundation stone was ceremoniously walled in. The construction work began on February 25, 2003. They were supposed to be financed by donations from the faithful, but since they were not enough, the state treasury was called in to help on the grounds that it was a question of financing a national shrine (the pantheon in the lower church) and a secular papal museum (upstairs under the dome).
In 2009 the church was in the raw state, still without a dome. The church was inaugurated on November 11, 2016.
Web links
Coordinates: 52 ° 9 ′ 31 ″ N , 21 ° 4 ′ 20 ″ E