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On the west side of plac Dominikanski is the Franciscan church and monastery , home to the Dominicans' long-standing rivals in the tussle for the city's religious affections. Built soon after Franciscan friars first arrived from Prague in 1237, the church was completed some thirty years later. As one of Krakow's major churches it has witnessed some important events in the nation's history, notably the baptism in 1385 of the pagan grand duke of Lithuania Prince Jagiello, prior to (and as a condition of) his assumption of the Polish throne. A plain high brick building, the church's somewhat murky, brooding atmosphere forms a stark contrast to its Dominican neighbour. The most striking feature is the celebrated series of Art Nouveau murals and stained-glass windows designed and executed by Stanislaw Wyspianski in 1900, following the gutting of the church in the fire fifty years earlier. An exuberant outburst of floral and geometric mural motifs extol the naturalist creed of St Francis, culminating in the magnificent stained-glass depiction of God the Creator in the large west window, the elements of the scene seemingly merging into each other in a hazy, abstract swirl of colour. By contrast, the floral motif depiction of St Francis and the Blessed Salomea in the window behind the altar conjures up an altogether more restrained, meditative atmosphere, while the north chapel contains a flowing set of Stations of the Cross by another Mloda Polska adherent, Jacek Mehoffer. The south chapel contains a fine early-fifteenth-century image of the Madonna of Mercy, a popular local figure. The Gothic cloisters , reached from the southern side of the church are worth a visit for the series of portraits of the bishops of Krakow dating back to the mid-fifteenth century and continuing up to the present day, notably the portrait of Bishop Piotr Tomicki from the early 1500s. To complete the ecclesiastical picture, the archbishop of Krakow's residence, once inhabited by Karol Wojtyla, stands across from the Franciscan Church.
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