Wawelski zespół katedralny i jego funkcje w średniowieczu

Abstract

Nowadays Cracow Cathedral looks as a separate monumental temple attached to the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill. Thousand years ago, following an obligatory scheme Cracow’s episcopal complex contained of: cathedral church (one or two), domus episcopi, claustrum, schola cathedralis and hospitium. All these buildings had to be surrounded by murus curiae. It is quite possible that the basilica known as St. Gereon church together with St. Venceslaus cathedral may originally have formed one, socalled double cathedral. In the fourteenth century the whole curia episcopalis was moved from Wawel Hill to the downtown of Cracow. In the same time Wawel cathedral became the royal coronation church and the burial church of Polish kings as well. These two functions were strictly connected with the new liturgical cult of St. Stanislaus - the Holy Patron of Poland. According to the fifteenth century literary sources Wawel and its cathedral was meant as a political and ideological center of the whole country.