Traces of the secrets of Cracowian churches

Traces of the secrets of Cracowian churches - Szymanowski Michał

Napisano już setki historycznych opracowań na temat krakowskich kościołów. Nie chcemy z nimi konkurować. Pragniemy, byście po przeczytaniu lub tylko przejrzeniu tej książeczki, spojrzeli na mijane codziennie i zazwyczaj dobrze znane Wam obiekty, trochę innym wzrokiem. Najpierw z perspektywy XIXwiecznego publicysty i wydawcy - Waleriana Wielogłowskiego, który w 1855 roku opublikował miniaturowy albumik zatytułowany Kościoły krakowskie wydane w stalorytach z treściwym onych opisaniem. Składał się on z czterdziestu ośmiu nieco naiwnych, ale urokliwych i dość wiernych ilustracji istniejących w owym czasie kościołów.
Jak te miejsca, te budynki, czasami tylko ślady po nich, wyglądają dzisiaj?
Możemy to sprawdzić oglądając współczesne zdjęcia wykonane z tych samych miejsc w których stał (lub siedział) przed laty Johann Wenzel Zinke robiąc wstępne rysunki do jego stalorytów. Część tekstowa odsłania niektóre z tajemnic, anegdot i ciekawostek związanych z każdym z kościołów.
Bawcie się dobrze, a wchodząc do poszczególnych kościołów wspomnijcie ludzi, którzy byli z nimi związani, i zdarzenia, jakie miały w nich miejsce.
Michał Szymanowski

Dear Reader, tens if not hundreds of historical studies have been written about churches in Cracow but our intention is not to compete. Nor is it to dishearten you with a deluge of dates, facts and footnotes. We just want you - after reading or just leafing through the pages of this booklet - to see the structures you go past daily and usually know well in a slightly different way. First, from the perspective of Cracow's nineteenth-century industrialist who took part in the November Uprising (and was awarded the Virtuti Militari order), was a Member of the Diet of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, and of the Grand Duchy of Cracow in Lviv, as well as a local activist, columnist and publisher - Walerian Wielogłowski, who in 1855 issued a miniature album entitled "Churches of Cracow in steel engravings with exhaustive descriptions". The work included forty-eight somewhat naive - yet charming and rather faithful - illustrations showing some of the existing churches. Those graphics were executed by Johann Wenzel Zinke, whom his professional activity took to many European cities. What do those places, those buildings - and in some cases the traces they have left - look today? We can check it by looking at contemporary photographs taken exactly where Zinke was standing (or sitting) years ago while making his preliminary drawings for the steel engravings. The accompanying text reveals certain secrets, anecdotes and curious facts related to each of the churches. Some of them do not exist anymore - all is left is drawings, memories and
sometimes photographs - i.e. traces... We also wish that - by taking a journey back in time - you could become at least slightly familiar with the surroundings of each of the churches. To assist you, we are making use of the fantastic, although not commonly known, "Kołłataj's Map of Cracow", a precise city map laid out by surveyors in 1785. It features not just all the buildings (in churches even walls, chapels and inner courts!) but also rivulets, higher and lower walls, gates, wickets, lots of arable land and little swampy meadows. Each church has been presented on the section of that map where it stands or used to stand. Comparisons with the present situation make great food for thought! So have good fun, and when entering individual churches, do remember those associated with them and events that have taken place there.
Michał Szymanowski