Sanctuary of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, Kraków
ul. Zamoyskiego 56, 30-523 Kraków
Tourist region: Kraków i okolice
fax. +48 126563197
tel. +48 122609700
The imposing Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the western part of the old Podgórze district was built in the neo-Romanesque style with neo-Gothic elements, designed by Jan Sas-Zubrzycki. The monastery construction started in 1902, and the church, consecrated in 1906, was erected in 1904 (the foundation stone was consecrated in 1905).
The three-nave church, with a transept and tower and the nave closed by a five-sided presbytery, was built on a Latin cross plan of brick with stone details. The main entrance is a stone, semi-circular, arcaded portico supported by columns with stylised capitals. On the sides are two low quadrilateral turrets, covered by separate roofs. The triangular gable of the façade is decorated with pinnacles with decorative cast-iron crosses. The side elevations (from Zamojskiego Street) are fenestrated and surrounded by an arcaded frieze. A triangular gable crowns the transept wall with stone statues of Christ and Our Lady of Sorrows on pinnacles. A quadrilateral clock tower was built adjacent to the chancel section, covered by a tented cupola with a face decorated with a striped arrangement of bricks with burr and sinters.
Columns with semi-circular arcades separate the naves (main and side). Originally, the interior had no painted decoration – it was covered with whitewash or exposed, raw brick. Between 1922 and 1923, it was covered with ornamental paintings by Professor Julian Krupski of Lviv, with symbols referring to the Litany of Loreto and scenes from the life of Mary. Between 1970 and 1973, the paintings were replaced by mosaic compositions by Stanisław Jakubczyk. Rudolf Haase of Lemberg made the organ in 1909.
Framed in a carved gilt frame, the miraculous image of Our Lady in the canopy-covered altar is a faithful copy of a 9th- or 12th-century icon from Rome's Redemptorist Church of Saint Alphonsus, brought to Rome and entrusted to the care of the monks by Pope Pius IX in 1865. Redemptorists were to promote her cult throughout the world. Karol Wojtyła and Blessed Aniela Salawa often prayed in front of the Kraków image, at which a perpetual novena has been held since 1952. The Holy Father John Paul II attached great importance to the cult of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, expressed in 1994 by placing papal crowns on the Kraków image. The sanctuary was formally established by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz in 2009, and since then, each parish priest has become the shrine's custodian.
The most crucial indulgence at the shrine falls on 27 June.
