Basilica of Corpus Christi in Cracow

Medals available at the side entrance from the courtyard and at the main entrance!

For 600 years, the Order of Canons Regular of the Lateran has been present in Kraków’s Kazimierz district. The Church of Corpus Christi, which serves as their seat, has been elevated to the rank of Minor Basilica.

The Church of Corpus Christi — once the most important building in Kazimierz — stands near Wolnica Square, the former Kazimierz market square. Its impressive, monumental structure once towered over the entire city, though today it blends into the landscape of Kazimierz’s narrow streets. From all sides, only the soaring tower is visible, offering views of this beautiful and slightly mysterious district.

The former parish church for all of Kazimierz is a building of great size and noble construction. It is worth knowing that it is one of five churches in Kraków built using a pillar-and-buttress system, which allowed basilica-type buildings to be constructed without flying buttresses (other such churches include Kraków’s most valuable churches: Wawel Cathedral, St. Mary’s Basilica, and the churches of the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians). The combination of stone and brick gives the church its striking coloration, while the genius of 14th- and 15th-century Kraków builders gave the massive structure its lightness and elegance.

The church is oriented, three-aisled, with an elongated, polygonally-ended presbytery. The sacristy adjoins the presbytery from the north, and the treasury and oratory from the west. The four-bay, three-aisled nave is surrounded by chapels (St. Anne and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary) and vestibules, while a tower with the Garden of Gethsemane and the Chapel of Our Lady of Loreto adjoins from the north. The church is connected to the monastery by an arcade-supported passage. Near the western vestibule, which serves as the church’s entrance, two small rooms draw attention — former cells where notorious sinners, mostly youth who violated the sixth commandment, were locked in during Sundays and holy days. The small windows in the walls of the presbytery near the main altar served a different function — from the earliest times, Holy Communion was distributed through them during times of plague.

The Canons Regular of the Lateran still minister in the Church of Corpus Christi, educating and preparing seminarians for the priesthood. Their historical and present-day contributions influenced Pope John Paul II’s decision to elevate the Church of Corpus Christi to the rank of Minor Basilica.