Kraków - Kościół św. Świętego Krzyża

A legend attributes Kraków's founding to the mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave occupied by a dragon, Smok Wawelski. The first written record dates to 965, when Kraków was described as a notable commercial center captured by a Bohemian duke Boleslaus I in 955. The first ruler of Poland, Mieszko I, took Kraków from the Bohemians.

In 1038, Kraków became the seat of the Polish government. By the end of the 10th century, the city was a center of trade. Brick buildings were constructed, including the Royal Wawel Castle. The city was sacked and burned during the Mongol invasion of 1241. It was rebuilt and incorporated in 1257 by Bolesław V the Chaste who introduced city rights. In 1259, the city was again ravaged by the Mongols. The third attack in 1287 was repelled thanks in part to the newly built fortifications.

The city rose to prominence in 1364, when Casimir III founded the University of Kraków, the second oldest university in central Europe. But after Casimir´s death in 1370 the campus did not get completed.

As the capital of the Kingdom of Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League, the city attracted craftsmen from abroad, guilds as science and the arts began to flourish. The 15th and 16th centuries are known as Poland's "Złoty Wiek" (Golden Age).

After childless King Sigismund II had died in 1572, the Polish throne passed to Henry III of France and then to other foreign-based rulers in rapid succession, causing a decline in the city's importance that was worsened by pillaging during the Swedish invasion and by an outbreak of bubonic plague that left 20,000 of the city's residents dead. In 1596, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa moved the capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from Kraków to Warsaw.
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A wooden church may have existed here at the end of the 12th century. In 1244, a hospital, ran by a religious order, was established here. The present brick church dates back to the 14th century. The presbytery was built at the beginning of the 14th century, the square, brick nave was completed in the second half of the same century. The church was connected with the no longer existing monastery and hospital buildings.

In 1528 the interior of the church burned down, but it was quickly rebuilt until 1533. In the years 1683-1684, the church was renovated, once again it was renovated in the years 1896-1898.

The church is one of the "cleanest" Gothic buildings in Krakow. It has a very simple structure - a square brick nave and a rectangular stone apse.The nave's vault is supported only by one central pillar , symbolizing the biblical Tree of Life .