Przemyśl Cathedral

Przemyśl's archcathedral looks like a Baroque church, but beneath its floor lie the walls of a much older one. In the crypts, opened to visitors in 2014, you can see the foundations of the Romanesque rotunda of St Nicholas from the 12th century. Above them rise a Gothic chancel from the 15th century, a Baroque nave and a free-standing Cathedral Tower about 71 metres high. The church's full name is the Archcathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist.

History: three churches on one spot

The rotunda stood where the chancel is now from the second half of the 12th century. It was built of sandstone on a circular plan 9.2 metres across, with a horseshoe-shaped apse. The Diocese of Przemyśl was founded in 1375, and its first cathedrals were a wooden church and then a stone Orthodox church in the castle. Work on the present building began in 1452 under Bishop Mikołaj Błażejowski. The rotunda was demolished, and the chancel was finished by 1474. Tatar raiders damaged the nave in 1495, and the work was only completed in 1549. For fear of further raids, the cathedral was surrounded by a wall with cannons, which stood until 1839.

In 1724 Bishop Aleksander Antoni Fredro decided to give the Gothic cathedral a Baroque look. Shortly after the work was finished, in 1733, the vault collapsed and destroyed part of the furnishings. Rebuilding was completed in 1743. Between 1884 and 1907 the chancel was given back its Gothic character, and the tower gained an upper storey with clock faces and a spire.

What to see

• The crypts – the outer walls of the rotunda with its round nave and apse, a lapidarium of architectural fragments from before the 1733 collapse, and ossuaries.
• The chancel – the Gothic part of the church, with the Baroque high altar and choir stalls from Bishop Fredro's time.
• The Drohojowski Chapel from 1578, in Renaissance style, built on the site of the old rotunda. It now serves as the Chapel of the Blessed Sacrament.
• The Baroque Fredro Chapel from the 18th century.
• The organ by Dominik Biernacki's firm, which won the Grand Gold Medal at the General National Exhibition in Poznań in 1929.

Interesting facts

In 1621 a duel and then a shoot-out broke out in the Drohojowski Chapel, after the standard-bearer Jerzy Krasicki and a son of Stanisław "the Devil" Stadnicki forced their way in with armed men. The bishop responded by placing the town under interdict. The sculptor Ferdynand Majerski, who worked on the 19th-century restoration, is commemorated by a stone carving of his head on the façade. The "Maria" bell won a gold medal at the 1927 decorative arts exhibition in Paris. The cathedral is a triple shrine: of Our Lady of St Hyacinth (Matka Boża Jackowa), St Józef Sebastian Pelczar and Blessed Jan Balicki.

Tripto tip

The cathedral stands on Cathedral Square, on the slope between the market square and Casimir Castle. It is a working church, so visit the interior outside service times. Check access to the crypts and the tower on the parish website, as it depends on the season. Allow about 45–60 minutes for the church and crypts, or half a day with the tower and a walk up to the castle hill. The terrace at clock level offers a panorama of the town and the San valley.