DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25050#0288
The church is entered through a neo-Gothic vestibule and
a late fourteenth-century stone portal preserved inside, richly
ornamented with carved floral motifs. The interior of the church,
with its vanishing perspective effect, is kept within the austere
forms of Reduktionsgotik, and gives an impression of emptiness and
coldness. The opulence and formal variety of original altars
disappeared with the 1850 fire and was supplanted by a uniform
neo-Gothic decoration.
Much better preserved are the chapels. The oldest is the
Chapel of St Hyacinth, co-founder and first abbot of the mo-
nastery. The chapel is upstairs, in the continuation of the north
aisle. Its upper, domed part can be seen above the aisle roof from
the cloisters. The architecture of the chapel dates mainly from
1581 to 1583, and it is a simplified version of the Sigismund
Chapel in the Cathedral. The rich decoration, though, was effected
in several stages, its finest elements being the paintings by
Tommaso Dolabella from 1619-1625 and the stuccowork by
Baldassare Fontana on the dome, supplemented by Karl Dan-
quarts’s paintings. In the middle there is the altar-tomb of
St Hyacinth with the motif of a sarcophagus borne by four figures
of angels, mounted by a statue of the saint.
The chapel of the Myszkowski family, adjoining the southern
flank of the church, was probably built by the workshop of the
eminent Mannerist Santi Gucci from 1603 to 1614. It is marked
by a very rich exterior, replicating in full the compositional
scheme of the Sigismund Chapel, including the drum and the
pointed dome. The external walls are faced with meticulously cut
rustication, and enlivened only by a cartouche with the foundation
tablet. The interior, faced with purple-grey and yellow marble, is
solemn and austere, in contrast to the lively decoration of the
Jagiellonian mausoleum. The coffered dome has in its caissons
a series of busts of Myszkowski family members. Similar, though
drumless, is the almost contemporary Lubomirski Chapel, ydth its
Late Renaissance painted decoration inside.
The Zbaraski Chapel adjoins the southwestern corner of the
273
a late fourteenth-century stone portal preserved inside, richly
ornamented with carved floral motifs. The interior of the church,
with its vanishing perspective effect, is kept within the austere
forms of Reduktionsgotik, and gives an impression of emptiness and
coldness. The opulence and formal variety of original altars
disappeared with the 1850 fire and was supplanted by a uniform
neo-Gothic decoration.
Much better preserved are the chapels. The oldest is the
Chapel of St Hyacinth, co-founder and first abbot of the mo-
nastery. The chapel is upstairs, in the continuation of the north
aisle. Its upper, domed part can be seen above the aisle roof from
the cloisters. The architecture of the chapel dates mainly from
1581 to 1583, and it is a simplified version of the Sigismund
Chapel in the Cathedral. The rich decoration, though, was effected
in several stages, its finest elements being the paintings by
Tommaso Dolabella from 1619-1625 and the stuccowork by
Baldassare Fontana on the dome, supplemented by Karl Dan-
quarts’s paintings. In the middle there is the altar-tomb of
St Hyacinth with the motif of a sarcophagus borne by four figures
of angels, mounted by a statue of the saint.
The chapel of the Myszkowski family, adjoining the southern
flank of the church, was probably built by the workshop of the
eminent Mannerist Santi Gucci from 1603 to 1614. It is marked
by a very rich exterior, replicating in full the compositional
scheme of the Sigismund Chapel, including the drum and the
pointed dome. The external walls are faced with meticulously cut
rustication, and enlivened only by a cartouche with the foundation
tablet. The interior, faced with purple-grey and yellow marble, is
solemn and austere, in contrast to the lively decoration of the
Jagiellonian mausoleum. The coffered dome has in its caissons
a series of busts of Myszkowski family members. Similar, though
drumless, is the almost contemporary Lubomirski Chapel, ydth its
Late Renaissance painted decoration inside.
The Zbaraski Chapel adjoins the southwestern corner of the
273