St. Joseph's Church () is a historic

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

church in the

Podgórze Podgórze ( German: ''Josefstadt'') is a district of Kraków, Poland, situated on the right (southern) bank of the Vistula River, at the foot of Lasota Hill. The district was subdivided in 1990 into six new districts, see present-day districts o ...

district of

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 Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It is located on

Podgórski Square Podgórski is a Polish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Podgórski sisters, Stephania and Helena * Anthony Podgorski (1903–1987), American businessman and politician * Pete Podgorski (born 1953), American boxer and boxing offic ...

on the northern slopes of the

Krzemionki foothills Krzemionki, also Krzemionki Opatowskie (, " Opatów silica-mine"), is a Neolithic and early Bronze Age complex of flint mines for the extraction of Upper Jurassic ( Oxfordian) banded flints located about eight kilometers north-east of the Polish ...

in the south-central part of the city.

History

The church was built between 1905 and 1909, and designed by

Jan Sas Zubrzycki Jan Sas Zubrzycki (25 June 1860 in Tłuste – 4 August 1935 in Lwów) was a Polish architect known for his work in the neo-Gothic styleBolesław Klimaszewski. ''An Outline history of Polish culture''. Interpress. 1984. p. 209. and originator ...

in th
Gothic Revival
style. It is the largest church in the area. The interior of the church is shaped in the likeness of a Gothic cathedral in the so-called Gothic

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

(

Brick Gothic Brick Gothic (, , ) is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Baltic region, Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock (though Glacial erratic, ...

) style. It is filled with numerous altars, benches and other items made mostly of wood. Work on the fittings lasted for years. In the postwar period, the locations of some of the altars and pulpits were changed, as well as a bricked arcade between an

ambulatory The ambulatory ( 'walking place') is the covered passage around a cloister or the processional way around the east end of a cathedral or large church and behind the high altar. The first ambulatory was in France in the 11th century but by the 13t ...

and the former chapel of the Sacred Heart (now Our Lady of Perpetual Help and Eternal Adoration). The altars created first were the main chapel (in the sanctuary) and the Annunciation (formerly in the right arm of the transept). Work on them was from 1908 to 1909. The main altar originally consisted of the tabernacle and statues of

Saint Joseph According to the canonical Gospels, Joseph (; ) was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus. Joseph is venerated as Saint Joseph in the Catholic Church, Eastern O ...

. In main altar in the west (right) arm of the transept stands the altar of the Annunciation. There are 5 other main altars.

Restoration

In 1999, the local parish priest, Franciszek Kołacz, decided the church needed restoration. The main altar, side altars, pulpit and organ were renovated. It was also restored to its original colour, which was lost during renovations at the time of pastor Franciszek Mirek, when the colour was changed to red-blue which severely affected the appearance of the church. Today the church has a white-gray colour which has restored it to its former character.

External links

* http://jozef.diecezja.pl/ (official site in Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Joseph's Church, Podgorze

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

Roman Catholic churches completed in 1909 1909 establishments in Poland 20th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Poland Gothic Revival church buildings in Poland