St. Florian's Church

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St. Florian's Church, Kraków

Matejko Square, Kleparz, with Church in the background

The Collegiate Church of St. Florian (Polish: Kościół św. Floriana w Krakowie) is a historic church in Kraków, Poland. It stands at the northern end of the Matejko Square and the former centre of the mediaeval city of Kleparz, now a district of Kraków.

The Church of St. Florian was built between 1185 and 1216. It was consumed by fire numerous times in the 12th, 16th and 17th centuries. Notably, during the Swedish siege of Kraków, General Stefan Czarniecki ordered that the city suburbs be burned down. However, during the city-wide fire of 1528 which consumed a considerable part of Kraków, the church — containing the relics of the Saint — was miraculously saved. Since then St. Florian, usually portrayed as a Roman legion’s officer carrying water, was revered in Poland as a patron saint of firefighters and chimneysweepers.

The present appearance of the church is the result of a Baroque rebuilding that followed the Polish-Swedish wars. Since the 16th century the church has become the University Collegiate. The coronation route began there with the rector of the Senate of the university welcoming new kings. The church was also the starting point for the royal funeral processions to the Wawel Cathedral.

In 1667 the remains of Queen Ludwika Maria Gonzaga, wife of Jan II Kazimierz, were placed there temporarily, and in 1818 the remains of Tadeusz Kościuszko were put there to rest. From 17 September 1949 till September 1951 future pope John Paul II, Karol Wojtyła, worked there as a vicar and in 1999 he renamed the church as the Lesser Basilica. He also visited the church on his pilgrimage to Poland on 18 September 2002.

Legend has it, that in 1184 oxen carrying the remains of St. Florian, the future patron saint of Poland, came to a halt at a place where the church stands now. The relics miraculously grew too heavy to be taken any further into the city and remained in Kleparz until it was decided for the church to be built at that exact spot. [1] Apparently, the martyr didn’t have anything do with Poland to begin with. His relics were brought to Kraków from Rome for political reasons. Claiming its role as the state capital contested by the city of Gniezno, Kraków needed to have a saint of its own.

The district of Kleparz was founded by Casimir the Great in 1366 as a separate town, around St. Florian's Church. It was named by King Casimir as Florencja (English: Florence) after its centrally located church, or in Latin, Clepardia.[2] Kleparz remained an unofficial suburb of Kraków till 1792 when the Polish Parliament incorporated it with the city.