Wawel Cathedral Krakow – Mass times

The John Paul II Wawel Cathedral Museum » Permanent Exhibition

1. Royal Room
The Royal Room houses the regalia: objects connected with the coronation ceremonies and funerals of the Polish monarchs, as well as their gifts for Wawel Cathedral, which had been kept in the Cathedral Treasury since the 11th century. Among the most important exhibits is St Maurice’s spear, presented by Emperor Otto III to Bolesław the Brave during the congress of Gniezno in 1000 AD. This mediaeval ceremonial weapon is considered to be the first of the royal insignia used by the Polish sovereigns of the Piast dynasty. In the same room visitors can see the velvet coronation mantle of the last king of Poland, Stanisław II August, which was used during his coronation ceremony in 1764. On display also are two swords: the coronation sword of August III Wettin from 1733, and a 16th-century blade taken from the grave of Zygmunt II.

The large showcase in front of the entrance door shelters royal funeral insignia — crown, sceptre and orb of Kazimierz IV, made in 1492. The central spot belongs to the orb of Anna of Jagiellon (1596), decorated with the engraving of a crowned eagle, accompanied by copies of the queen’s crown and sceptre. In the middle of the room the Golden Rose, a magnificent example of late-Baroque goldsmithery and gift of Pope Clement XII to Maria Josepha, wife of August III, is hold on display. Among the objects of special interest is a 14th-century rationale, Queen Jadwiga’s gift to the Bishops of Cracow. The use of this rare liturgical vestment is allowed only by special papal privilege. Pope John Paul II wore this rationale during solemn ceremonies held at the Cathedral.

2. Cathedral Treasury Room (11th – 16th century)
Objects from the grave of Bishop Maurus, second half of the 12th centuryIn this room a unique collection is kept, consisting of objects donated to Wawel Cathedral, considered the most important church in Poland, by its patrons: kings, bishops and aristocrats. Works of art displayed here used to serve religious worship and include both masterpieces of various handicrafts, such as weaving and embroidery, and 15th- or 16th-century paintings.

Visitors can also see slabs from an 11th-century stone building with a well-preserved plaiting pattern decoration. A magnificent silver box (known as a “Saracene-Sicilian case”) decorated with scenes of chivalry, which served for centuries as a reliquary, is one of the most interesting exhibits in this room. Another showcase contains a masterpiece of early Renaissance embroidery: the chasuble donated by Cracow Voivode, Piotr Kmita. The chasuble, which counts among the most exquisite works of late medieval embroidery, is decorated with seven scenes from the life of St Stanislaus, made with extraordinary precision by a most skilled artisan in the beginning of the 16th century.

Objects found in the grave of bishop Maurus are also of particular interest; they are a silver chalice and patena, a golden ring, a bone bead and a lead tablet from the beginning of the 12th century, and together they present an important source to the mediaeval funeral custom in Poland. This room also shelters a magnificent bishop’s headdress – Tomasz Strzempiński’s mitre, decorated with intricate Renaissance embroidery. Visitors should not miss the late 15th-century painting, Christus Salvator Mundi, which used to hang in the Cathedral, and makes a good example of outstanding Małopolska artwork of the late Middle Ages, reflecting the style of Dutch paintings.

3. Cathedral Treasury Room (17th – 20th century)
This room displays gifts donated to the Cathedral by the clergy and aristocracy in the period between the 17th and 20th centuries. Visitors can see here unique liturgical vessels (chalices and monstrances) which used to propagate God’s glory, their artistry was therefore fully exposed on festival days. Among the most attractive pieces is the monstrance of Bishop Stanisław Dąmbski, used solely for the exposition and veneration of the Eucharist on Good Friday and during solemn Resurrection processions on Holy Saturday.

The decoration on the monstrance shows Christ as the Host, accompanied by figures from the Old and New Testament, such as Abraham and Melchizedek, Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St Peter. The 17th-century mitre of Bishop Andrzej Lipski, decorated with hundreds of precious and semiprecious stones, is another example of exceptional goldsmith mastery. A collection of chalices of Bishops of Cracow is also on display, as well as chasubles presented by kings and bishops, which constitute a testimony of the donors’ care for the magnificence of liturgy in the Cathedral. Many of them are made of valuable materials and decorated with precious stones, and were commissioned from the most skilled goldsmiths and embroiderers. A richly ornamented gilded bowl and jug catch the eye in the display case featuring handicraft exhibits. One of the most recent objects in this room is a silver, neo-Gothic crosier of Bishop Adam Sapieha, dating from 1918, surmounted by a figurine of the patron saint of the Cathedral, St Stanislaus, supported by an angel.

4. Papal Room
The last part of the exhibition contains memorabilia related to Pope John Paul II who, during his time as Archbishop of Cracow, elevated the Diocesan Museum of Wawel to the rank of Cathedral Museum. The room displays his cardinal’s and papal attire (cassocks, birettas, zucchetti and sashes). Visitors can also see a papal mitre decorated with golden leaves on which the Black Madonna, the symbols of the Evangelists, and John Paul II’s coat of arms are engraved, which had been the gift of Italian goldsmiths to the Pope, and was later handed over to the Wawel Cathedral during the second papal visit in Poland in 1983. There is also a commemorative plaque offered to the Pope in 1978 by Italian journalists, which is an exact copy of the 16th of October 1978 issue of Vatican official magazine, L’Osservatore Romano, featuring information about the papal election of the Archbishop of Cracow, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła.

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The room houses an armchair used by the pope during his last, eighth visit to Poland, on the occasion of which he visited the Wawel Cathedral on the 18th of August 2002, as well as a collection of exotic mementos of papal travels from around the world. This collection was started with a goblet made of coconut and silver, presented to the Cathedral Museum by Karol Wojtyła, at the time Archbishop of Cracow, on its opening day, the 28th of September 1978.

1. Catch a direct flight to Krakow Airport (John Paul II International Airport) from Warsaw or major European cities, such as Munich, London, Madrid, Prague, Paris or Berlin. Carriers include LOT Polish Airlines, Czech Airlnes, and Lufthansa or,
2. Fly to Warsaw Frederic Chopin Airport, located in the southwestern portion of the capitol city. From there you have options to Krakow by air, train, bus or rental car or,
3. Take a flight to Katowice Airport, located 31 miles (50 km) northwest of Krakow. You can catch a plane connection or take a direct bus.

Sunday and holidays

• 7:00 am Holy Mass in Latin at St Mary’s Chapel
• 8:00 am Holy Mass at the relics of St Jadwiga
• 9:00 am Holy Mass in Latin at the relics of St Stanislaus
• 10:00 am Holy Mass at the Coronation Altar with choir
• 11:30 am Holy Mass at the Coronation Altar
• 3:30 pm Lenten Psalms
• 4:30 pm (November – March) 5:30 pm (April – October) Holy Mass at the relics of St Stanislaus

Weekdays

• 6:30 am, 7:00 am, 7:30 am, 5:30 pm (April – October)
• 6:30 am, 7:00 am, 7:30 am, 4:30 pm (November – March)

• 6:30 am – 8:00 am weekdays
• 7:00 am – 12:00 noon Sundays and holidays

The History of Wawel Cathedral

The first cathedral church at Wawel was probably built shortly after the Cracow Bishopric was established in the year 1000. Too little is known about the original cathedral to be able to reconstruct its appearance. More is known about the successive Romanesque church from the turn of the 11th and the 12th centuries. Its construction is attributed to the reign of Duke Władysław Herman (1079-1102). The newly built church was consecrated in 1142. It was a triple-aisle basilica, built in limestone and sandstone, probably with galleries over the side aisles. On the east and west side of the church were galleries built on a rectangular plan with semicircular apses and with crypts under the galleries. Two towers built on a square plan flanked the west side of the church. Substantial parts of the structure have survived intact to this day, including St Leonard’s Crypt and the lower part of the south tower.

Cracow Cathedral was the centre of worship of St Stanislaus (Stanisław), the Cracow bishop who was murdered in 1253 on the orders of King Bolesław the Bold. The grave of the bishop became a destination for pilgrims from all over Poland and neighbouring countries. The veneration of this saint was associated with the idea of the unification of the Polish Kingdom after the period of its regional disintegration. It was for this reason that the tradition of having coronations of Polish kings at the Gniezno Archcathedral was broken on the 20th of January. 1320, when King Władysław the Short was crowned at Cracow Cathedral, close to the relics of the patron saint of the restored Polish monarchy. After that, Wawel Cathedral became the site at which the coronations of Polish rulers took place.

St Slanislaus – sculpture on the western facadeHowever, the Romanesque church, damaged by time, as well as the fire of 1305, was thought not magnificent enough to be the main church of the Cracow Diocese. Therefore, Bishop Jan Muskata took the initiative to have a new church built, but the project was never to be completed and only the foundations of the Gothic polygonal chancel were built. The present cathedral, which has survived virtually unaffected, was built in successive phases: from 1320 to 1346 (the chancel with its ambulatory) and from 1346 to 1364 (the aisle body), under the bishops Nanker, Jan Grot and Bodzanta. A number of masonry workshops were employed one after another to construct the cathedral. The church was consecrated on the 28th of March, 1364. The Gothic cathedral was built in the form of a triple-aisled basilica with a transept (an area planned crosswise to the nave) and a chancel, built on a rectangular plan, with an ambulatory.

As soon as the Gothic church was raised, bishops and magnates had the first chapels built along its external walls. This process continued throughout the 14th and the 15th centuries. The 16th century saw major changes in the cathedral’s interior. The beginnings of the Renaissance in the cathedral, as well as generally in Poland, are connected with the activity of the Italian sculptor, Francesco the Florentine, who executed the sarcophagus of King Jan Olbracht (died 1501). However, the breakthrough was the construction of the Royal Chapel, known today as the Sigismund Chapel. It was commissioned by King Zygmunt (Sigismund) I the Old and executed by a team of Italian artists to the architect Bartolomeo Berrecci’s design. It soon served as a model for a number of successive Renaissance and Mannerist bishop mausoleums which replaced earlier Gothic structures at the cathedral (the mausoleums of Piotr Tomicki, Samuel Maciejowski, Andrzej Zebrzydowski and Filip Padniewski).

Some mediaeval altars, including the High Altar, gave way to new Renaissance structures. Many royal and bishop sarcophaguses and epitaphs were also created in the 16th century. Renaissance and Mannerist cathedral furnishings were works by outstanding, mostly Italian, artists who had settled in Cracow. Along with Bartolomeo Berrecci, these were Giovanni Maria Padovano, Jan Michałowicz of Urzędów and Santi Gucci. Magnificent works imported from Nuremberg are particularly noteworthy: foundry works (sarcophagus plates, grilles), gold-work (some elements of the Sigismund Chapel decor) and paintings (casements in the altar in the Sigismund Chapel). All these are works by Peter and Hans Vischer, Peter Flötner, Melchior Baier and Georg Pencz.

Vaulting at the Holy Cross ChapelDuring the two centuries that followed, the interior decor of Wawel Cathedral was thoroughly remodelled. In the 17th century, due to generous donations by royalties, bishops, magnates and canons, almost all furnishings from earlier eras were removed and replaced with new altars, stalls and paintings. Materials typically used in the new era were black marble from Dębnik and rose marble from Paczółtowice. As a result of the remodelling of the nave and the chancel in the Baroque-style, a composition axis became clearly visible, with the confession of St Stanislaus and the High Altar as dominant elements. Following earlier traditions, more domed chapels were built, such as the chapels of bishops Andrzej Lipski and Jakub Zadzik and the mausoleum of the Vasa royal dynasty, all of them referring in form and content to the Sigismund Chapel.

Alterations in the 18th century gave the cathedral its late-Baroque appearance. Most interior furnishings that had varied previously in terms of material, form and decoration, were replaced with new elements in an orderly and consistent manner, following the principles of symmetry and with clear compositional axes. The numbers of side altars were significantly reduced. Domed mausoleums of Cardinal Jan Aleksander Lipski and Bishop Andrzej Stanisław Kostka Załuski were built at that time, but the royal chapel of the Saxon Wettin dynasty remained nothing but an idea. Unfortunately, in order to have more light shed into the cathedral interior, the walls of the ambulatory were raised to the level of the chancel. By doing this, the spatial layout and the body of the eastern part of the church was changed.

It should be noted that the cathedral’s Baroque furnishings were generally designed by outstanding Italian architects (Giovanni Trevano, Giovanni Battista Gisleni and Francesco Placidi) or by architects who were trained in Italy (Kacper Bażanka).

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The loss of Poland’s independence adversely affected Cracow Cathedral. It no longer received lavish royal and bishops’ donations, as estates of the Cathedral Chapter, once extremely rich, became reduced to a minimum and it was not enough to adequately provide for the needs of the cathedral. However, in the 19th century the cathedral became a destination for patriotic pilgrims and a venue for grand ceremonies on anniversaries of important events in Polish history. The burials of national heroes of the struggle for Poland’s independence, Tadeusz Kościuszko and Duke Józef Poniatowski, as well as one of the nation’s spiritual leaders, the poet Adam Mickiewicz, were of great importance for the nation and made the cathedral a Polish Pantheon. It is also the place of final rest of other meritorious Poles. This tradition was continued in the 20th century, when the remains of the poet Juliusz Słowacki, Marshal Józef Piłsudski and General Władysław Sikorski were buried in the cathedral’s vaults.

Polychrome on the vaulting of Queen Sophia’s ChapelA fundamental role in giving the cathedral its present appearance was due to the renovation that took place in the years 1895-1910 under Sławomir Odrzywolski and later Zygmunt Hendel. The building, along with its furnishings, underwent thorough conservation at that time. Historic layers of successive periods were preserved, although, unfortunately, some Baroque decorative elements were removed. Of note is the fact that new works of art were also added, namely royal sarcophaguses of SS Jadwiga and Władysław of Varna, sarcophaguses of bishops, wall paintings, stained-glass, grilles and many other elements. Some of them are works by prominent artists of the Art Nouveau style, among them Józef Mehoffer, who designed stained-glass windows and wall paintings in the Szafraniec Chapel and the Treasury.

The High AltarThe 20th century was a period of continuing renovation of the cathedral and its monuments. All the cathedral’s facades and some of the chapels were restored a few years before the year 2000. In this way, the church prepared itself to become the centre of events on the Millennium of the Cracow Diocese and the Great Jubilee of Christianity.

For as long as a thousand years, the Cracow Metropolitan Basilica of SS Stanislaus and Wenceslaus has been the “mother of churches” in one of the most important Polish dioceses which in 1925 was raised to the rank of an archdiocese. The Lord’s service has been always conducted here with great splendour and was considered a model for other churches. In its glorious days, more then a hundred priests were involved in the cathedral services, and prayers continued day and night without interruption. The Cathedral Chapter was assisted by curates at the top the cathedral clergy hierarchy.

Special priest groups were entrusted with special tasks to serve some of the chapels: Mansionaries, Psalterists, Prebendaries of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity and the Chapel of the Holy Cross, as well as Rorantists and Angelists. Chant and organ music added lustre to the liturgy held at the cathedral. In the 17th century, a vocal and instrumental ensemble was installed at the cathedral often under outstanding composers: Franciszek Lilius, Bartłomiej Pękiel and Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki.

Wawel Cathedral holds a very special place in the history of Poland and the Poles’ national awareness. For centuries it has been the place of worship of St Stanislaus, the saint who has been inextricably connected with the idea of a united and independent Polish State, a concept which was equally valid in the period of regional disintegration, the Partitions of Poland and communist rule. The grave of the martyr has been considered the Altar of the Homeland. The history of the Cracow Diocese and its main church reached its culmination at the election of its host, Cardinal Karol Wojtyła, to the Holy See as Pope John Paul II.