Dominican Basilica of the Holy Trinity, Kraków

Why Go

The order that never left

Kraków has two great mendicant churches four minutes apart, and this is the louder one. The Dominicans came here in 1222 and have been preaching from this corner ever since, through fire, partition, and occupation. The church holds the relics of the friar who brought the order to Poland, and it is still full of students on a Sunday evening, which is the best argument for its importance that anyone could make.

Hyacinth, and eight centuries of preachers

Jacek Odrowąż, known in the Church as Hyacinth, was a Kraków canon who received the Dominican habit from Saint Dominic in Rome and brought the order back to Poland; the friars were established at Holy Trinity in 1222. He preached across central and eastern Europe and died in Kraków on 15 August 1257. He was canonized in 1594. His relics rest in the chapel reached by a staircase above the left aisle, built where his cell is traditionally identified, and the walls of that chapel carry a baroque painted cycle of his life and miracles. The medieval church largely burned in the great Kraków fire of 1850, taking the nave vault with it, and the building was reconstructed over the following decades; several of the baroque side chapels survived.

The plan is long, tall and Gothic, and the reconstruction after 1850 kept that character rather than replacing it. The side chapels off the aisles are the oldest surviving fabric. The chapel of Saint Hyacinth sits at first-floor level above the sacristy and is reached by stairs from the left aisle, which is the single most important thing to know before planning a visit here.