Gniezno Cathedral

Primatial Basilica
Metropolitan Cathedral of Gniezno
Primatial Basilica ; Metropolitan Cathedral of Gniezno
	Archdiocese of Gniezno
Historic Monument of Poland
Designated	1994-09-08
Reference no.	M.P. z 1994 r. Nr 50, poz. 416

The Royal Gniezno Cathedral (The Primatial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Shrine of St. Adalbert,

Polish monarchs and as the seat of Polish church officials continuously for nearly 1000 years. Throughout its long and tragic history, the building stayed mostly intact, making it one of the oldest and most precious sacral monuments in Poland.^[2]

The cathedral is known for its twelfth-century (ca. 1175), two-winged

St. Adalbert of Prague and a silver relic coffin of that saint. The coffin was made by Peter von der Rennen of pure silver in 1662 after the previous one, established in 1623 by King Sigismund III Vasa himself, was robbed by the Swedes in 1655, during the Swedish invasion.^[3]^[4]

The temple is one of Poland's national

National Heritage Board of Poland

.

History

Early history

The religious temple dates back to the end of the ninth century, when an oratory was built in the shape of a rectangular nave. At the end of the tenth century Duke

Sylvester II

.

In March 1000 Emperor

Radzim Gaudenty

. In 1018 a fire started in the temple and it took in seven years to repair the structure.

In the year 1025 Bolesław the Brave was crowned as the first King of Poland in the Gniezno Cathedral. After his death

Romanesque style and consecrated in 1064. Twelve years later King Bolesław II the Bold

was crowned in Gniezno. At the end of the eleventh century the eastern part of the temple suddenly collapsed.

Late Middle Ages

In the years 1103–1104 a synod was held with the participation of the papal legate associated with the retrieval and placing of the precious relics of St. Adalbert in the cathedral. A few years later, Duke

Mieszko III the Old, visited the site.^[5]

After 219 years, in 1295, the penultimate royal coronation of Prince

Teutonic Knights pillaged and destroyed the temple. Ten years later, on the same site of the former cathedral, a Gothic temple was built under the personal supervision of Archbishop Jarosław Bogoria Skotnicki. The same Archbishop welcomed King Casimir III the Great, who donated a substantial sum of money and greatly contributed to the reconstruction of Gniezno. At the end of the fourteenth century the construction of the chancel and large nave was completed. In 1419 the archbishops of Gniezno were given the title of primate and represented the country in Rome as cardinals. The first appointed primate of Poland and cardinal was Mikołaj Trąba

.

In 1613 a fire destroyed the spires, roof and two frontal towers of the temple. Seven years later,

pipe organs. In the years 1641–1652 Primate Maciej Łubieński conducted a reconstruction project of the interior in the baroque style. In 1760, another fire broke out which resulted in the collapse of both towers, the star vault as well as the chancel. In the next few years the interior was completely rebuilt in classical architectural style with small elements of the now diminishing baroque style. The reconstruction was initiated by Primate Władysław Aleksander Łubieński

.

Modern period

In 1809, the French army installed a military warehouse in the cathedral which was removed when Napoleon's troops left the area. In 1931, Pope Pius XI bestowed the title of minor basilica on the cathedral. In 1939, following the invasion of Poland, the Nazis converted the temple into a concert hall. In 1945, another fire broke out which was caused by the intentional incendiary artillery shelling by the Red Army. This partially ruined the Gothic vault and consequently also the pipe organs and other historical architectural details. The city was retaken by the Soviets without any resistance offered by the Germans. At the turn of the 1950s and 1960s, the temple was fully restored in the Gothic style and all baroque architectural elements were subsequently removed from the nave and the temple itself, giving it a more medieval look to specifically resemble the original structure present during the coronation of Polish monarchs eight hundred years earlier.

On 3 June 1979 Pope John Paul II visited the cathedral.

Architecture

Chapels

Boleslaus I of Poland

The elliptical cupola covering the late-baroque Potocki Chapel, designed by

Archbishop of Gniezno (d. 1801).^[6]

The 14th-century Kołudzki Chapel was renovated in 1647 with consistent interior furnishings. The four corners of the world are personified on the mid-18th-century polychrome vault. The early-baroque portal with its 17th-century renaissance grille from Gdańsk is one of Poland's greatest blacksmithing achievements. The foundation plaque of the chapel has Szymon Kołudzki's (d. 1656), portrait, epitaph and tombstone.[7]

St. Nicholas Chapel, also known as Dzierzgowski Chapel, dates from the 14th century. The Gothic arcade has the remains of 14th-century Gothic sculptural ornamentation featuring hunting scenes engraved in artificial stone and a mid-16th century renaissance polychrome. The chapel is embellished with two precious renaissance tombstones: the first was sculpted from red marble by Bartolommeo Berecci and features the reclining figure of Abp. Andrzej Krzycki (d. 1573), humanist and politician; the second was for Abp. Mikołaj Dzierzgowski (d. 1559), a supporter of Queen Bona Sforza, and was sculpted from sandstone and red marble by Hieronim Canavesi. There is also a round tondo with the Madonna of Giovanni Maria Padovano in the copestone.^[8]

The Łubieński Chapel was created in 1642–1648 by joining two medieval chapels and restructured along early-classicist lines in 1778. The early-baroque portals from c. 1640 are made of marble and closed with renaissance grilles from Gdańsk. The early-baroque tomb of Archbishop Maciej Łubieński (d. 1652) is made of marble and alabaster. The altar painting from 1646 has portraits of Łubieński family members.^[9]

Interior

The cathedral is a three-nave basilica-looking structure with polygonal presbytery and ambulatory and many adjacent chapels of noble and aristocratic families, some personally funded by the head of the family or the monarch of Poland. Under the tiled floor several discoveries were made; these included the relics of earlier pre-Romanesque buildings and several tombs of former archbishops. In the crypt of the cathedral there is a 1006-year-old sepulchral stone inscription on display, the oldest of its kind in the country, discovered by archeologists. Other aspects of the crypt may include the remaining fragments of the walls of the first temple funded by Mieszko I of Poland.