Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in Zielonki

From the street you first see a modernist entrance of 1966 crowned by an openwork steel tripod with a cross. Behind it, though, is a late Gothic 16th-century church with Renaissance details carved by stonemasons then working in Kraków. The church stands in Zielonki, a village just beyond the northern edge of the city.

History: builders from Kraków

The church was built in about 1524–1538 on the site of an older one from around 1300. According to the inscription over the door, the sacristy dates from 1524. The chancel was built in 1533 by the Kraków mason Jakub Żur with the stone carver Kasper Simon, and the nave in 1538 by masons Jan Kapinos and Jan Bocheńczyk. In 1889 an upper floor was added over the sacristy and the nave got a flat ceiling; in 1948 a square chapel designed by Stefan Świszczowski was added, and in 1966 a new three-storey entrance designed by Antoni Mazur. Three bells hang at its top: Gabriel, Adalbert and Our Lady of Częstochowa.

What to look for

• The Renaissance wall tabernacle of 1533 – by Kasper Simon from the workshop of "the Florentine" – Florentine stone carvers then working in Kraków.
• The ciborium, decorated in a manner similar to the door frames of Wawel Castle.
• The sacristy doorway and the pointed south portal with Renaissance decoration.
• Fragments of wall paintings from the 16th century and from 1758 (by Andrzej Radwański), and the Baroque high altar with a painting of the Nativity of the Virgin.
• A field altar – a triptych of Our Lady of Częstochowa made in Scotland in 1941 and given in 1950 by soldiers of the Polish Army in the West.
• A bell of 1616 cast by Marcin Stefkowicz and a censer of 1624.

In front of the church stands a tall stone wayside column of 1636, known as "Na Rozdziałowskim", topped by a lantern with a Pietà, and next to it a 19th-century wooden shrine with a folk statue of the Virgin.

Tripto tip

Zielonki is about 6 km north of central Kraków on regional road 794 towards Skała, and city buses run here. The church takes 20–30 minutes; the interior is easiest to see around Mass. Combine it with Korzkiew Castle and the church in Giebułtów, both a few kilometres away.