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Ulica Grodzka stretches south of the Rynek, crossing the tram lines circling the city centre at plac Dominikanski. East across the square stands the large brickwork basilica of the thirteenth-century Dominican church and monastery . Constructed on the site of an earlier church, following its destruction during the fearsome Tatar raid of 1241, the modest original Gothic brick church grew to become one of Krakow's grandest churches. Much of the accumulated splendour, however, was wiped out during a fire in 1850, which seriously devastated the church and much of the surrounding quarter, the Franciscan church included. The appearance of both churches has improved markedly thanks to a recent much-needed cleanup. Today, the dominant atmosphere is one of uncluttered, tranquil contemplation - like most Polish churches, the main purpose of the building is worship, not display, a fact attested to by the continual stream of services held here on almost any day of the week. However, there is a wealth of architectural detail to appreciate. Adjoining the main nave, redecorated in an airy neo-Gothic style, are a succession of chapels, many of which survived the 1850 fire in better shape than the rest of the building. Oldest of them all, up a flight of steps at the end of the north aisle, is St Hyacinth's chapel , dedicated to the joint founder and first abbot of the monastery. Based on the design of the Sigismund Chapel in Wawel cathedral, the chapel boasts some rich stuccowork on the dome above the freestanding tomb, both by Baldassare Fontana. The other notable feature is a sequence of paintings portraying the life of the saint by Thomas Dolabella. The Baroque Myszkowski family chapel in the southern isle is a fine creation from the workshop of Santi Gucci, the exuberantly ornamented exterior contrasting with the austere, marble faced interior, with busts of the Myszkowski family lining the chapel dome. Similarly noteworthy is the Rosary chapel , built as a thanks-offering for Sobieski's victory over the Turks at Vienna in 1683, and housing a supposedly miracle-producing image of Our Lady of the Rosary. A fine series of tombstones survives in the chancel, notably those of the early-thirteenth-century prince of Krakow Leszek Czarny (the Black), and an impressive bronze tablet of the Italian Renaissance scholar Filippo Buonaccorsi, built to a design by Veit Stoss and cast at the Nuremberg Vischer works. Through the Renaissance doorway, underneath the stairs leading up to St Hyacinth's chapel, are the tranquil Gothic cloisters , whose walls are lined with memorials to the great and good of Krakow, leading in the north wing to a fine Romanesque refectory with a vaulted crypt. The Dominicans have a long tradition of involvement with the city's student population, and during the 1980s, the cloisters were a focus of independent cultural and political activism, notably exhibitions of art frowned upon or banned by the authorities. The tradition is maintained in the student art exhibitions still displayed in the cloisters.
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