Primate’s Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Gniezno

Medals can be purchased in the souvenir shop in the cathedral and in the Archdiocesan Bookshop across the street!

The cathedral in Gniezno, the capital city of the first Piasts, was declared a monument of history in 1994. To emphasise its immense cultural significance, it is known as the mother of Polish cathedrals. It was the coronation temple of kings, the seat of Poland’s first archbishopric, and the site of important events from the early days of Polish statehood. It was from here that St Adalbert, patron saint of the Polish Kingdom, set out on his mission to christianise Prussia. In 1000, German Emperor Otto III made a pilgrimage to his tomb in the cathedral, and his meeting with the Polish ruler Bolesław Chrobry went down in history as the Congress of Gniezno.
The high status of the church – the necropolis of the archbishops of Gniezno – is underlined by its monumental character. As an important monument of Gothic architecture, it is a peculiar redaction of the ‘cathedral type’ characteristic of Central European ecclesiastical construction of the time. Its interior decoration and the works of art it contains, elements of its splendid furnishings, such as the priceless Gniezno Doors, are a manifestation of the highest skills of artists representing various styles and periods.