Museums

The Baptismal Basin in Wiślica

In Wiślica, right next to the collegiate church, beneath the pavilion of the Archaeological Museum – a branch of the National Museum in Kielce – survive the relics of the Romanesque church of St Nicholas and a stone basin 4.5 metres across, known as the baptismal bowl. Considered the oldest sacred trace in the town, it has fuelled scholarly disputes for decades.

The discovery of 1958

The relics came to light in 1958, during the construction of a water main, and were subsequently subjected to thorough research. The excavations revealed the remains of a Romanesque church and a funerary chapel from the 11th century. The church was dismantled in the 13th century during the construction of Wiślica's town walls.

Were the Wiślanie baptized here?

A bold hypothesis grew around the basin: it was supposed to be a communal baptismal font from the 9th century, in which, around the year 880, Duke Svatopluk of Great Moravia, after subduing the Vistulans, was to baptize the tribe in the Slavic rite – almost a hundred years before the baptism of Mieszko I in 966, then considered the first on these lands (before that, the bowl at Lednica had been regarded as the oldest font). In time the theory was rejected: research indicated that the basin dates from the 11th century. A more prosaic interpretation also appeared – that it served for mixing mortar.

Whatever the resolution of the dispute, the relics remain an important trace of early Christianity and can be seen in the pavilion at Solny Square 32. Nearby it is worth seeing the collegiate church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a minor basilica since 2005, and the Gothic House of Jan Długosz from 1460.