Church of the Lord’s Ark, Parish Church of Our Lady the Queen of Poland, Krakow

Monuments

Modernistyczne wnętrze kościoła z przejmująca figura Chrystusa Ukrzyżowanego.

ul. Obrońców Krzyża 1, 31-831 Kraków Tourist region: Kraków i okolice

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This is the first church built in the area of Nowa Huta, in the Bieńczyce district. Inside the church, which has unusual architecture, precious keepsakes have been collected as gifts from Catholics from all over Europe.

The history of the parish dates back to 1952. From the beginning, Karol Wojtyła supported the local parish priest's activities and the inhabitants' struggle to have their own church. The communist authorities refused to permit a church to be built in Nowa Huta, the model socialist district of Kraków. In 1960, the cross was ordered to be removed from a building site on the Teatralne Estate. The faithful came to the defence of Wojtyła and the cross, and a riot ensued. In 1969, Cardinal Archbishop Karol Wojtyła laid the foundation stone for St Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, and in 1977, he consecrated the church, which also serves as a shrine to Our Lady of Fatima.

The church was built between 1967 and 1977, according to a design by Wojciech Pietrzyk. The roof of the building makes it similar to the ark and the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut, also known as Our Lady of the Heights, designed by Le Corbusier and standing in Ronchamp. Above the structure is a 70-metre-high cross-mast. The 1,800-square-metre building accommodates around 6,000 worshippers. The interior features an altar of Carrara marble in the shape of an open palm and a tabernacle cast in bronze in the shape of an emerging cosmos with a 'moon rock', a gift to Cardinal Karol Wojtyła from the crew of Apollo 11, although research questions its authenticity. Professor Bronisław Chromy made the statue of Christ Crucified, and the image of Our Lady Queen of Poland is a copy of a painting from Zbaraż. The Stations of the Cross were painted between 1980 and 1983 by painter Mariusz Lipiński. The statue of Our Lady of Fatima is a gift from the Catholics of Portugal that was placed in the grotto and crowned in 1992. Under the altar is a grotto of Our Lady; under the nave is the Chapel of Reconciliation with wooden Polish Pietas and a sculpture of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, works by Antoni Rząsa, and a statue of Our Lady of Armour, made from bullets extracted from the wounds of soldiers who fought at Monte Cassino.