Masovian Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral

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Masovian Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in Płock is one of the most valuable representatives of renaissance architecture in Middle Europe. From the antecedent, Romanesque cathedral are presumably the bronze door (now in Velikiy Novgorod), with the figurative bas-reliefs depicting the verses of so-called "Roman Confession of Faith", and the figure of Alexander of Malonne, bishop of Płock. The door have been made in the Magdeburg workshop about 1150. In Płock cathedral there is a bronze replica of the door, made in 1980-s.

The bishopric in Płock was founded about 1075. Romanesque cathedral built after 1129 by prince Bolesław III and bishop Aleksander of Malonne consecrated 1144 as Blessed Virgin Mary Church. In the cathedral there are tombs of two Polish rulers Władysław I Herman and Bolesław III Wrymouth. After a great fire in 1530, a new Renaissance temple have been built (1531 - 1535) on the same place, reusing granite ashlar from Romanesque basilica. Architects were Bernardino de Gianotis from Rome, Giovanni Cini da Siena and Philippo da Fiesole. The layout of the new cathedral have been based on the Renaissance basilicas of Rome (Sant'Agostino, Santa Maria del Popolo) however the external architecture remains rather North Italian brick churches, more similar to local late Gothic on Masovia, and may be the result of rebuilding about 1560 by Giovanni Battista of Venice, who added a spacious choir and two western towers.