CHAPEL OF THE HOLY CROSS RELIC, FIRLEJÓW FOUNDATION
We enter the chapel through the gate in an eclectic grille from the end of the 19th century. The lattice was made by Władysław Gostyński
from Warsaw. On the concave of the entrance there is a woodcarving decoration in the style of the Lublin Renaissance depicting two cartouches in the vicinity of the hermitage pilasters. Hierograms on cartouches – these are the names of Jesus and Mary. In the center of the arch you can see the SD monogram, which means – Soli Deo (God Himself).
This chapel, as the resting place of the ancestors and the storage of the relics of the Holy Cross, was founded by Henryk Firlej, the Crown chamberlain and then the Primate of Poland, in 1615. It is built on a square plan with arched corners. In the south wall there is an elongated rectangular window with a rich decoration from the outside. In the construction of the chapel, the vertical direction has been strongly emphasized, and this is why decorative elements are used: grooved and fluted pilasters, high niches with decorative conchs
and parapets and arcade niches of the walls. A circular dome resembling a sailor’s ceiling is above a decorative decorative beam. The dome was covered with a decoration in the form of decorative rollers connecting cartouches in the shape of a circle and a hexagon with an ornament surrounding the lighthouse opening. Jan Wolff made stucco decorations in 1620-30.
We do not know the builder of the altar. It was built around the middle of XVII century in the style of early baroque.
In the middle retabulum a picture of Saint was placed. Dominica painted in 1645 by the Dominican friar Reginald. In the side niches there are statues of the Virgin Mary and St. John from the beginning of XVI in. Probably earlier these figures together with the cross, which hangs over the entrance to the chapel, were placed on the beam of the rainbow arch in the main aisle (above the pulpits). On the sides of the tabernacle, Jesus’ bas-reliefs were placed
and Mary. On the top of the altar there is an image from the middle XVII century presenting Pieta.
On the right side of the chapel, under the window, renaissance tombstones were laid: Mikołaj Firlej (+1526)
and Piotr Firlej (+1553). Probably the tombstones were polychrome and gilded. The tombstones come from
from Padovan’s workshop in Krakow. Previously, these tombstones were in a different place in the church,
because the chapel is later (after 1615).
Above the entrance to the chapel, a 17th-century fresco depicting the Shawl was preserved. Weroniki (veraicon). The general conservation of the chapel ended in 2017.