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Najstarsze relikty kościoła Św. Trójcy oraz kaplicy grobowej Pileckich odkryte przed zachodnią elewacją kościoła Dominikanów w Krakowie

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: THE OLDEST ARCHAEOLOGICAL RELICS OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AND THE PILECKI SEPULCHRAL CHAPEL DISCOVERED IN FRONT OF THE WEST ELEVATION OF THE DOMINICAN CHURCH IN KRAKÓW During the first stage of archaeological research conducted in 2011 on the site of the former graveyard in front of the south part of the church’s façade fragments of mediaeval walls were discovered. The relics underwent architectural research and were identified as part of the 12th-century Church of the Holy Trinity and the 14th-century sepulchral chapel of the Pilecki family. Stratigraphic analysis has revealed that the oldest structure is the fragment of a stone wall (430 cm long and 130 cm tall) which constitutes a part of the foundations of the south aisle of the present church. Adjacent to its south-west corner is a stone circular building, located also in the dig on the bottom of a drain built in 1910, and in the crypt of the Lubomirski Chapel. An analysis of the projection shows that the circular building erected in the second phase has a regular outline of a sector (three quarters of a circle whose outer diameter is 690 cm, inside diameter being 450 cm) and is probably a part of a round corner staircase tower which could also have been used as a belfry. At this stage of research, only its general location in the south section of the nave of the present church can be determined. The foundation walls are interpreted as fragments of the parish church of the Holy Trinity surrounded by a graveyard, and they are dated to the second half of the 12th century (ca. 1220). Erected on the relics of the walls of the Romanesque church was the west, brick wall of the present-day Gothic church (1290–1320). Remains of the corner buttress survive on the crown of the staircase tower whose inside was filled with stones and broken bricks to create the foundation of the buttress. The location of the stone foundation of the wall of the Chapel of the Transfiguration which existed in front of the church’s facade in the years 1597–1860 has also been determined. In front of the Lubomirski Chapel, under the retaining wall of the sewer drain, researchers also discovered relics of an older, polygonal chapel: the fragments of four walls, each of them 240 cm long and 110 cm thick, two buttresses (of which one survives in vestigial form), and two corners between the buttresses. The deep, stone foundations of the middle buttress were built against the circular tower. Surviving in one of the corners of the chapel is the entrance (bricked up in the 16th century) featuring a stone door jamb with a pear-shaped profile, a threshold and a fragment of a chamfer joined with the base of a respond with a concave profile. The structure is interpreted as the Pilecki Chapel built around 1383. Its overground part was completely demolished before the construction of the early baroque Lubomirski Chapel in the years 1605–1610. Analysis of the geometrized layout of the walls has led to a hypothetical reconstruction of the central, dodecagonal design of the chapel which was topped with a tripartite rib vault with bundles of ribs joining at the responds located in the corners reinforced with buttresses. An alternative composition of the Pilecki Chapel, involving the walls of the church and of the neighbouring side chapel, is also probable. According to this hypothesis, the design would be a rectangular interior with a polygonal closing in its west end. At the present stage of research, it is impossible to determine the exact original form of the chapel, or to exclude the possibility of its earlier construction. The relics of the chapel and of the oldest church will be the subject of further research, the second stage of the project being scheduled for 2012.
DOI: 10.32030/krzy.2012.20
Language: English
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7225651029
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