Poznań: If you have more time...

Cathedral of Ostrów Tumski

It is one of the oldest Polish churches and the city's oldest historical building. It dates back to the beginning of Polish statehood and the creation of Poznan diocese in 968 when a construction of a 3-nave pre-Romanesque basilica was undertaken by Prince Mieszko I but was later pulled down after the death of King Bolesław Chrobry. The new Romanesque stone, two-tower basilica was accomplished about 1058. In the middle of the 13th century the eastern part of the church was demolished and the early Gothic brick presbytery was erected. About 100 years later a Gothic nave was added and at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries a new Gothic presbytery was built. In the meantime most of the chapels surrounding the cathedral appeared. During the following ages, it was destroyed by fires, cataclysm, wars and when it was being rebuilt, new elements, typical for the époque, were added - in the 17th century it was redesigned in Baroque style and in the 18th in Classicism style. The cathedral was destroyed during World War II.

When it was rebuilt after 1945, it regained its Gothic form of the 14th and 15th centuries. A cross-ribbed vault in the presbytery and stellar vault in the nave and the aisles were reconstructed. The remains of the oldest structures can be found in the crypt beneath the nave. Next to the tombs of Mieszko I and Bolesław Chrobry almost half of the limestone Baptism Basin is preserved, of a diameter of 5m. This is probably what remains of a baptistery dating from Mieszko I times, before the first cathedral was erected. There are also fragments of walls of two first cathedrals, pre-Romanesque and Romanesque. The Romanesque wall face is also preserved in the lower part of the southern tower. Throughout 1000 years of its existence, the cathedral has been a place of numerous historical events such as royal funerals (it is the oldest necropolis of Piast dynasty), royal weddings (King Wacław II with Ryksa, Przemysław II's daughter; Casimir III the Great with Adelheid, daughter of Henry II, Landgrave of Hesse).

Today the cathedral is a 3-nave oriented basilica on a cruciform plan, with a presbytery on the east side. It is surrounded by 12 chapels (two of which make arms of the transept), 2 vestries and a southern porch. The unusual elements in Polish architecture, in the mass of the cathedral are flying buttresses, spread between the walls of the nave and the towers. It is 81m long and 43,5m wide. The nave is 24.5m tall, the towers are 62m tall and the little towers over the ambulatory are 44 m tall. The façade has a lancet arch fault portal from profiled and glazed bricks, and above it there is a Gothic rose window. The Baroque domes of the towers were reconstructed in 1952.

There are a lot of precious works of art inside the cathedral, e.g. late Gothic main altar from 1512, brought there from Silesia. Over the altar there is a late Baroque crucifix and two Baroque figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John. Late Gothic choir stalls were brought from Zgorzelec, late Baroque pulpit and a baptismal font from 1720, both come from the former Lutheran Church in Milicz. On the pillar over the Archbishop's Throne there is a precious Flemish 17th-century tapestry.

There are many precious works of art in the chapels as well. At the entrance to the Chapel of Jesus Heart there is an early Gothic tombstone of Teodoryk Pradel (died in 1383) found there in 1954 under the floor. In 1990 5 Gothic and Renaissance bronze tombstones returned to the Cathedral, having been taken out during the war to Germany and later found in the warehouse of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. In the alter of St. Martin's Chapel there is a painting by Krzysztof Boguszewski from 1628, depicting St. Martin's arrival in Amiens who has Prince Vladislav features.