The Cathedral in Wroclaw is consecrated in honor of John the Baptist. This is a very beautiful and majestic Gothic structure with neo-gothic elements, which stands near the town of Tumsky Island (Cathedral Island). The current church is the fourth one that was built on this site.
The first church was built in the 10th century, it had one nave with a length of 25 m .After the conquest of Silesia, this Bohemian church was replaced by a larger building, a basilica with three naves, a crypt and towers in the east .Soon the first cathedral was destroyed, and in its place an even larger church in the Romanesque style was built - this happened at Kazimir I .At the end of the Mongol invasion, this church was again seriously rebuilt and turned into the same brick Gothic building that we see today .It became the first brick building in the city .Construction began in 1244 g ., although the nave and the foundations of the current spiers in the west were completed to 1341 g .
In 1540 g .the fire destroyed the roof of the cathedral, and it was restored 16 years later in the Renaissance style .Another fire occurred in 1759 g .: in it, the towers, the roof and several fragments of the construction were burned .Slow restoration continued for the next 150 years .In the 19th century, the western part and the interior of the cathedral were redone to the Gothic Revival .But the cathedral was almost completely destroyed in the last days of the Second World War (according to some estimates, 70% of the building was destroyed) .Part of the interior, which managed to be saved, was placed in the National Museum in Warsaw .The first stage of reconstruction lasted until 1951 ., when the church was again consecrated .In subsequent years, the restoration continued, and the original conical form was returned to the towers only in 1991 .
The modern view of the cathedral is a three-nave basilica with three entrances: the main one in the west and two others in the north and south .Behind the choirs there are three main chapels: Chapel Sv .Elizabeth, built in the years 1682-1700 gg .with a statue of the holy work of Ecole Ferrat, a pupil of Bernini, and the tomb of Cardinal Domenico Guidi, another pupil of Bernini .The Gothic Mariana Chapel was created right after the choir in 1354-1365 gg ., and here is also located the tomb of the bishop of the work of Peter Fisher-senior .It contains the miraculous statue of the Virgin Mary with the Child, created by Carl Johann Steinhauser in 1854 ., which is associated with an amazing legend .According to her, when the Russians bombed Wroclaw, and the cathedral caught fire, the flames magically stopped in front of the fallen statue, without harming either her or the three chapels behind .Finally, the third chapel, the northern one, is executed in the baroque style and consecrated in honor of the Body of Christ .It was built in 1716-1724 gg .Venetian architect Johann Bernhard Fischer von Erlach, too, as a bishop's mausoleum .In this chapel you can see the decorative murals of Carlo Carlone and the sculptures of Ferdinand Brocoff .
Other chapels of the cathedral are not so prominent, but they are also beautiful. It is the chapel of John the Baptist, built in 1408 and adjacent to the northeast tower; The chapel, now called the Holy Communion, 1671-1672, the Chapel of the Resurrection, built in 1749, and the chapel of St. Casimir, where previously there was a famous triptych created in 1468 by Peter von Wartenberg (now in the Warsaw Museum ).
Practical information
Address: plac Katedralny, 18.
The cathedral is located in the city center, on the northern bank of the Odra, between the botanical garden and the river and very close to the Pokoj bridge.