Chapel of Blessed Bronisława is a

neo-Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half of the 19th century ...

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

chapel in

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

, Poland, erected in 1856–61 within the walls of a military

citadel A citadel is the most fortified area of a town or city. It may be a castle, fortress, or fortified center. The term is a diminutive of ''city'', meaning "little city", because it is a smaller part of the city of which it is the defensive core. ...

constructed during the Austrian Partition of Poland by the

Habsburg monarchy The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

. The chapel was meant as a replacement for the Polish 18th-century church demolished by the Austrians in 1854 during the construction of the stronghold in the

Zwierzyniec Zwierzyniec () is a town on the Wieprz river in the Zamość County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. It has 3,324 inhabitants (2004). Zwierzyniec is the northernmost town of the Roztocze National Park. The park comprises some of the last remaining s ...

district. The imperial "Kościuszko" citadel surrounded the ancient burial mound and Polish national monument called

Kościuszko Mound Kościuszko Mound () is an artificial mound in Kraków, Poland. It was erected by Kraków, Cracovians in commemoration of the Polish national leader Tadeusz Kościuszko, and modelled after Kraków's prehistoric mounds of Krakus Mound, Krak and Wa ...

. The actual

mound A mound is a wikt:heaped, heaped pile of soil, earth, gravel, sand, rock (geology), rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded ...

was used as an observation point by the army. The new chapel, based on design by Feliks Księżarski, was a result of the determined requests for a replacement made by the Polish Committee for the Construction of the

Tadeusz Kościuszko Andrzej Tadeusz Bonawentura Kościuszko (; 4 or 12 February 174615 October 1817) was a Polish Military engineering, military engineer, statesman, and military leader who then became a national hero in Poland, the United States, Lithuania, and ...

Monument.

Background

The chapel of Blessed Bronisława took its name from the 13th Century

Norbertine The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular in the Catholic Church ...

nun, who had left the convent in order to lead a hermit's life in that exact place. Her abode still existed by the hill (known as Sikornik) in the 19th century, though already adorned by the shrine erected at the beginning of the 18th century.

Sisters from the Zwierzyniec convent donated the grounds on which the Mound and the chapel were erected.Blessed Bronisława Chapel
at the

homepage.

References

Bronisława Gothic Revival church buildings in Poland Roman Catholic chapels in Poland 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Poland {{Poland-RC-church-stub

Background

See also

References