St. John's Cathedral, Warsaw

Infobox Historic building


caption=
name=Katedra św. Jana
location_town=Warsaw
location_country=Poland
architect=
client=
engineer=
construction_start_date=1390
completion_date=
date_demolished=1944
cost=
structural_system=
style=Mazovian Gothic|

St. John's Cathedral (Polish: "Katedra św. Jana"), located in Warsaw's Old Town, is one of two cathedrals in the Polish capital. St. John's stands immediately adjacent to Warsaw's Jesuit Church, and is one of the oldest churches in the city and the main church of the Warsaw arch-diocese. St. John's Cathedral is one of Poland's national pantheons.

History

Originally built in the 14th century as a Mazovian Gothic church, the Cathedral served as a coronation and burial site for numerous Dukes of Masovia.

The Cathedral was connected with the Royal Castle by an elevated 80-meter-long corridor that had been built by Queen Anna Jagiellon in the late 16th century and extended in the 1620s after Michał Piekarski's failed 1620 attempt to assassinate King Sigismund III in front of the Cathedral.Stefan Kieniewicz, ed., "Warszawa w latach 1526-1795" (Warsaw in 1526–1795), vol. II, Warsaw, 1984, ISBN 8301033231.]

After the resolution of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, at the end of the session at the Royal Castle, King Stanisław August Poniatowski went to the Cathedral of St. John to repeat the Oath of the Constitution in front of the Altar, in the face of God. Also the Marshals of the Great Sejm were carried to the Cathedral on the shoulders of the enthusiastic deputies of the Sejm.

The church was rebuilt several times, most notably in the 19th century, it was preserved until World War II as an example of English Gothic Revival.

Leveled by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising (August–October 1944), it was rebuilt after the war. The exterior reconstruction is based on the 14th-century church's presumed appearance (according to an early-17th-century Hogenberg illustration and a 1627 Abraham Boot drawing), not on its prewar appearance.

Interior

The profuse Early Baroque decoration inside from the beginning of the 17th century and magnificent painting on the main altar by Palma il Giovane depicting "Virgin and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. Stanisław" were destroyed in German bombing of the church on August 17, 1944. [http://www.sztuka.net.pl/palio/html.run?_Instance=www.sztuka.net.pl&_PageID=445&newsId=288&_CheckSum=1378186475 sztuka.net] ] The remains of the church were blown up by the Germans in November 1944. Only one wall that somehow managed to survive was all that was left of the six hundred year old edifice. This devastation of a Polish national monument was a part of the Planned destruction of Warsaw, which had officially begun after the collapse of the Warsaw Uprising.

The painting of the "Virgin and Child.." was created in 1618 for King Sigismund III Vasa especially to place on the central altar of the St. John's Cathedral. As a masterpiece it was confiscated on Napoleon's order and transported to Paris. [Kwiatkowska Maria, "Katedra Św. Jana", Warszawa, 1978.] Retrieved by Warsaw authorities in 1820s after the Congress of Vienna. It survived many wars and the bombing of Warsaw since it was created, but did not survive the last one during the WWII.

The interior reconstruction design considerably differed from the pre-war Cathedral, taking it back in time to its raw Gothic look, because very little of the cathedral's original furnishings has been preserved.

Buried

The crypts beneath the main aisle hold the remains of notable persons, including:
* Dukes of Masovia:
** Stanisław
** Janusz III
* Adam Kazanowski
* composers and musicians of the Royal Cappella Vasa, eg. Asprillo Pacelli, whose magnificent black marble epitaph with composer's bust was reconstructed after the war
* the last of Polish monarchs Stanisław August Poniatowski, who was also crowned in the cathedral
* statesman Stanisław Małachowski, whose beautiful white marble tomb monument was designed by Bertel Thorvaldsen
* painter Marcello Bacciarelli
* writer Henryk Sienkiewicz
* presidents of Poland:
** Gabriel Narutowicz
** Ignacy Mościcki
* premier and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski
* freedom fighter Kazimierz Sosnkowski
* primates:
** August Hlond
** Stefan Wyszyński

Gallery

=Historical

Works of art

References

ee also

* Royal coronations in St. John's Cathedral
*Polish Crown Jewels
* Royal Castle
* Warsaw Old Town
* Field Cathedral of the Polish Army
* Gniezno Cathedral
* Wawel Cathedral
* Constitution of May 3, 1791

External links

* [http://www.sztuka.net.pl/palio/html.run?_Instance=www.sztuka.net.pl&_PageID=445&newsId=288&_CheckSum=1378186475 sztuka.net] Pictures of the church.
* [http://www.katedra.mkw.pl/historia.htm Historia Bazyliki Archikatedralnej w Warszawie]
* [http://www.warszawa1939.pl/index.php?r1=swietojanska_8&r3=0 www.warszawa1939.pl] In the prewar Warsaw.
* [http://www.archidiecezja.warszawa.pl/archidiecezja/katedra/ Archidiecezja Warszawska] Some newest pictures.
* [http://www.sztuka.net.pl/palio/html.run?_Instance=www.sztuka.net.pl&_PageID=44&_CheckSum=-470301985 sztuka.net] , Mausoleum of the Dukes of Masovia