Photograph by M. Kus 

Photograph by M. Kus 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by M. Kus 

The Saint Trinity Parish Church, situated in the north part of the old-town complex, is the most important mediaeval building of the town. Its erection started probably as early as in the 14th century but continuous ambitions to improve its appearance and extend the main church of the town resulted in enriching the originally Gothic main body with Mannerist and Baroque extensions. In spite of plundering and fires, the works of art preserved in the Krosno parish church interior are numerous and they reflect the town dwellers concern for their church. Today, it is considered to be one of the most beautiful and richest sacred interiors in Małopolska (Little Poland).
The earliest Gothic-style furnishings of the temple which survived are the Passion group sculptures situated on the rood arch between the nave and the chancel. This outstanding Gothic woodcarving masterpiece was made in a Cracow’s woodcarving workshop at the beginning of the 15th century. Another preserved masterpiece is the Coronation of Our Lady by the Holy Trinity, painted on a wood plank and considered to be one of the finest examples of panel painting in Poland. The painting was created in 1470s by John the Great, a Cracow painter. After the church fire, in the years 1683-1646 the interior of the church was transformed from a Gothic style into a Mannerist one.

The main altar coming from the 30s of the 17th century, made by the Krosno native woodcarvers, contains the painting of “Adoration of the Holy Trinity and the Virgin Mary by All Saints”, painted by Thomas Dolabella, a Venetian artist.
Pictures on the walls and pillars form a set of more than twenty paintings painted by the artists from Thomas Dolabella’s circle. They are full of Sarmiatian (old-Polish) and bourgeois spirit and they form a unique set of paintings, inseparably linked with the interior and perfectly reflecting the ideas of the counter-reformation times.
The councillors’ stalls – richly decorated pews where the town councillors took seat – have their back panels decorated with personifications of the cardinal virtues: temperance, justice and fortitude and of the theological virtues: charity, hope and faith. There is a separately elaborated Portius’s pew with the personification of justice. The Portius family founded the St. Peter and Paul double-dome chapel being a mausoleum, added to the main church body and constructed by Vincenzo Petroni, an Italian Architect.
In the years 1638-1651 the belfry tower, situated near the parish church, was erected as a foundation by Wojciech (Adalbert) Portius. It houses Urban, the fourth largest bell in Poland, measuring 490 centimetres in circumference.

A legend is connected with the bell, telling about mysterious gold found in a wine barrel imported from Hungary by Portius. As the gold belonged to highland robbers and it was planted in a merchant’s barrel during one of his trade trips, it carried the devil’s stigma an nobody dared to buy it paying for it with their soul, neither in Hungary nor in Poland. As a result it was decided to use the gold for the glory of God and to fund a bell which was to survive all disasters. The fact is that the Krosno bell survived all war requisitions and turmoil. It has sounded ever since, warning – according to the legend – against hatred and greed.

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by B.... 

The Capuchin Fathers church and cloister were situated outside the town walls, at the former Hungarian Route; the monks were brought to Krosno in 1753 by efforts of Jan Klemens Branicki, Crown Field Hetman (commander-in-chief). At first they settled at the St. James church (it does not exist any more). In the years 1755 – 1770 a chapel war erected and provisional lodging for the monks. The erection of a regular monastery began in 1771 but the church was was consecrated as late as in 1811. The founders of the project, designed by Innocenty Barth, a Capuchin monk, were: Jan Klemens Branicki, the Jaworski brothers, Adam Ignacy Lewicki and Innocenty Barth. The church was built of sandstone blocks and it is one of the last Baroque churches erected in Poland. With one nave, a short one-bay chancel closed with a straight wall and with two vestibules on the sides it has an additional chapel on the south-west side.

The two-storey church facade was accomplished in 1781. Over a vestibule added later, a semicircular panel is situated with a mid-1890 painting showing Jesus Christ on the Cross. The church interior is covered by the illusion wall-painting by Antoni Smuglewicz and Andrzej Kucharski, Krosno artists, painted in 1809. The main altar retable (setting) was carved in 1879 by Stanisław Janik, a Krosno woodcarver, and Romuald Łapczyński from Cracow. An 18th-century-latter-half Baroque crucifixis is situated in the middle of the altar. In the three-bay nave, the side altars, also made by S. Janik in the years 1896-99, are located in the deep arcade alcoves in the areas between the pilasters. The altar’s retables contain the paintings: Mother of God Immaculate Conception, painted by Jan Kruszyński, a painter from Lvov, and their finials: St. Peter, St. Francis Vision, made by Jan Tabiński, and also in the finial: St. Peter. On the right there is St. Anthony and St. Mary Magdalene in the finial; and St. Felix (in the middle) and St. Florian in the finial; all of them painted by Jan Tabiński. The furnishings of the church, worth noting, include: early 19th-century black marble stoups, a rococo procession cross, epitaph panels, 18th- and 19th-century liturgical vessels, the 18th-century-latter-half chasubles made in Gobelin tapestry technique by the Romer’s workshop in Bieździadka.

There is a monastery building adjacent on the north side of the church, built concurrently with the church itself. The north-west wing was added in 1853 thanks to the efforts of Józef Krzysik, Capuchin Provincial, under the supervision of Tomasz Jaźwicki, a contractor. The monastery is composed of three wings surrounding a rectangular cloister garth. The south-east wing – on the church axis – houses the sacristy and the monastic choir with a library upstairs, converted from an original chapel erected in the years 1755–1770. The choir as well as the church nave are ornamented with baroque and classical illusion wall-painting by Antoni Smuglewicz and Andrzej Kucharski. There are a few 18th- and 19th-century paintings in the monastery building. The monastery premises are surrounded by a garden, seriously reduced in size nowadays, enclosed with a stone-wall, the garden being set up at the same time as the monastery.

There is a rectangular courtyard in front of the church, surrounded by a semi-circular stone-wall, with the stations of the Passion within the niches of the side parts of the wall, the scenes painted by Mr Papużyński, a Krosno native painter, at the beginning of the 20th century.
 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Photograph by M. Rymar 

Franciscan Fathers’ Church belongs undoubtedly to the oldest survived buildings in Krosno. Franciscans appeared in Krosno as early as in the 13th century and settled in a small chapel at first. They started to erect a new church at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries and it survived in an unchanged shape till the 17th century. In the years 1647-1648 Stanisław Oświęcim, a King Vladislav’s courtier, funded a family sepulchral chapel built according to the design of Vincenzo Petroni, an Italian architect. The interior stucco ornamentation was carried out by Giovanni Battista Falconi. The chapel is one of the most perfect fine art realizations of the 17th century.

A romantic legend about the tragic love between step-siblings is connected with construction of the chapel. According to the legend Anna died while waiting for Stanisław, who went to Rome trying to obtain the Holy Father’s consent to his marrying his stepsister. “... France is proud of the sepulchre of Abelard an Heloise, Italy shows in pride the remnants of Laura and Petrarch, this country, as well, has the honour to possess a memorial of great love ...” described by poets, among others by M. Białoszewski, immortalized by painters such as Matejko and Bergman and extolled in music by M. Karłowicz. 

The Franciscans church burnt down almost completely in 1872. All the interior furnishings were destroyed in the fire and the only survived elements in the church are: sepulchral monuments of Jan Kamieniecki, sculptured by Jan Maria Padovano (16th century), of Jadwiga Firlejowa, née Włodek, sculptured in 1611 by Luke Reitino, two-tier sepulchral monument of Jan Jędrzejowski and his wife Elisabeth (late 16th century). On the right side of the chancel there is a tombstone of Barbara Mniszchowa, née Kamieniecka. In 1994, during conservation work, some mediaeval wall paintings were discovered. They have been transferred on a movable painting support and are displayed in the Transfiguration Chapel. 
 

Photograph by D. Piwka 

Photograph by Z. Piwka 

St. Wojciech (Adalbert) wooden church

Some buildings situated outside the town walls also used to play an important role in its life. In the 15th century the St. Wojciech (Adalbert) wooden church was built in the so called Przedmieście Górne (Upper Suburb), just in the site where – according to a legend – the saint was to have a rest on his way from Prague to Gniezno. In 1903 the church was thoroughly refurbished according to a design by Tadeusz Stryjeński.

Photograph by M. Rymar 

 

A Jesuit College and the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary church were built in the west part of the town, along the fortification walls in mid-17th century. After the dissolution of the order in 1773, the college building housed a school and later a hospital. The church was pulled down by the Austrian authorities in 1807 and the furnishing was sold by auction. After a fire in 1849, rebuilding of the edifice began; today the complex is used by Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa (the State Higher Vocational School) in Krosno.

The former palace of the Przemyśl bishops, situated near the former Cracow Gate, was directly incorporated in the town fortification system. Originally a wooden hall was transformed into a stone and brick building in the 17th century and today it is the seat of the Sub-Carpathian Museum (Muzeum Podkarpackie), with permanent theme displays and very interesting temporary displays, including a magnificent collection of kerosene lamps and the remnants of the Krosno fortifying walls.

Emaus Chapel (ul. Kletówka)

The Holy Cross Chapel, also called the Emaus Chapel, was erected outside the town area in the 18th century by Jesuits. In 1930 a chancel, a sacristy and a portico were added. The main altar made by Apoloniusz Kędzierski comes from the same year. The painting of Mother of God with Baby Jesus was originally placed in a side altar but after conservation it was provisionally moved to the Scapular Mother of God Chapel in the parish church.
 

Convent of Sisters of St. Peter Claver (Zgromadzenie SS. Misjonarek Św. Piotra Klawera ul. Łukasiewicza)

The convent of the Missionary Sisters of St. Peter Claver (in Polish: “klawerianki”) was established in 1894 by Beatified Maria Teresa Ledóchowska. The first original house of the convent in Krosno was erected in the years 1929-1930. The building was designed by Stanisław Bergman, a Krosno contractor/builder, and it is situated in the western part of the town on the river Lubatówka. A late 18th-century cross and the St.Catherine low relief carved by Andrzej Lenik are kept in the chapel sacristy. The sisters run a Missionary Museum available to visitors. The display shows a collection of souvenirs from missions in Africa, Asia, South America and Australia.