Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of medieval Europe that was predominant in the 11th and 12th centuries. The style eventually developed into the Gothic style with the shape of the arches providing a simple distinction: the Romanesque is characterized by semicircular arches, while the Gothic is marked by the pointed arches. The Romanesque emerged nearly simultaneously in multiple countries ; its examples can be found across the continent, making it the first pan-European architectural style since Imperial Roman architecture. Similarly to Gothic, the name of the style was transferred onto the contemporary Romanesque art.
Gniezno is a city in central-western Poland, about 50 kilometres east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. One of the Piast dynasty's chief cities, it was the first historical capital of Poland in the 10th century and early 11th century, and it was mentioned in 10th-century sources, possibly including the Dagome Iudex, as the capital of Piast Poland.
Władysław I Herman was the duke of Poland from 1079 until his death.
Kuyavian–Pomeranian Voivodeship is one of Poland's 16 voivodeships (provinces).
Władysław I Łokietek, in English known as the "Elbow-high" or Ladislaus the Short, was King of Poland from 1320 to 1333, and duke of several of the provinces and principalities in the preceding years. He was a member of the royal Piast dynasty, the son of Duke Casimir I of Kuyavia, and great-grandson of High-Duke Casimir II the Just.
Cieszyn is a border town in southern Poland on the east bank of the Olza River, and the administrative seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship. The town has 33,500 inhabitants, and lies opposite Český Těšín in the Czech Republic. Both towns belong to the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia, and formerly constituted the capital of the Duchy of Cieszyn as a single town.
Siewierz is a town in southern Poland, in the Będzin County in the Silesian Voivodeship, seat of Gmina Siewierz. Siewierz is located in Dąbrowa Basin, which is part of the historical and geographical region of Lesser Poland.
Pre-Romanesque art and architecture is the period in European art from either, the emergence of the Merovingian kingdom in about 500 AD or from the Carolingian Renaissance in the late 8th century, to the beginning of the 11th century Romanesque period. The term is generally used in English only for architecture and monumental sculpture, but here all the arts of the period are briefly described.
Brick Gothic is a specific style of Gothic architecture common in Northeast and Central Europe especially in the regions in and around the Baltic Sea, which do not have resources of standing rock. The buildings are essentially built using bricks. Buildings classified as Brick Gothic are found in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Kaliningrad, Denmark, Sweden and Finland.
Mosan art is a regional style of art from the valley of the Meuse in present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany. Although in a broader sense the term applies to art from this region from all periods, it generally refers to Romanesque art, with Mosan Romanesque architecture, stone carving, metalwork, enamelling and manuscript illumination reaching a high level of development during the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries.
The Gothic architecture arrived in Poland in the first half of the 13th century with the arrival of the Dominican and Franciscan orders. The first elements of the new style are evident in the foundation of the Dominican Trinity church in Kraków (1226–1250), built by Bishop Iwo Odrowąż. Rebuilding of the Wrocław Cathedral, started in 1244, was another early manifestation of the Gothic style. The earliest building in Poland built entirely in the Gothic style is the chapel of St. Hedwig in Trzebnica (1268–1269), on the grounds of a Cistercian monastery.
The culture of medieval Poland was closely linked to the Catholic Church and its involvement in the country's affairs, especially during the first centuries of the Polish state's history. Many of the oldest Polish customs and artifacts date from the Middle Ages, which in Poland lasted from the late 10th to late 15th century, and were followed by the Polish Renaissance.
The Collegiate Church of St. Mary and St. Alexius is an encastellated Romanesque church located in the village of Tum near Łęczyca, in central Poland. It was constructed out of granite blocks and sandstone in the mid-12th century.
The Church of St. Andrew in the Old Town district of Kraków, Poland located at Grodzka Street, is a historical Romanesque church built between 1079 and 1098 by a medieval Polish statesman Palatine Sieciech. It is a rare surviving example of the European fortress church used for defensive purposes.
The Church of St. Adalbert or the Church of St. Wojciech, located on the intersection of the Main Market Square and Grodzka Street in Old Town, Kraków, is one of the oldest stone churches in Poland. Its almost 1000-year-old history goes back to the beginning of the Polish Romanesque architecture of the early Middle Ages. Throughout the early history of Kraków the Church of St. Wojciech was a place of worship first visited by merchants travelling from across Europe. It was a place where citizens and nobility would meet.
The metropolitan city of Kraków, former capital of Poland, is known as the city of churches. The abundance of landmark, historic Roman Catholic churches along with the plenitude of monasteries and convents earned the city a countrywide reputation as the "Northern Rome" in the past. The churches of Kraków comprise over 120 Roman Catholic places of worship, of which over 60 were built in the 20th century. They remain the centers of religious life for the local population and are attended regularly, while some are often crowded on Sundays.
The architecture of Poland includes modern and historical monuments of architectural and historical importance.
The Rotunda of Saint Nicolas in Cieszyn is a Romanesque rotunda located in the town of Cieszyn, Poland. The structure was built in the 11th or the 12th century as a Western Christian castle chapel and stronghold (gord) church.
