Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel and Florian the Martyr

Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel and Florian the Martyr — Minor Basilica

Jozef Pius Dziekonski (1844-1927)

1887-1904

3, Florianska Street

Warsaw, Poland,

Photograph 2011 and text by Andrzej Diniejko

Formatting and perspective correction by George P. Landow

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The Cathedral, designed by J. P. Dziekonski, a leading representative of Vistula Gothic, was built to serve the pastoral needs of the Catholic residents of Warsaw’s borough Praga located on the east bank of the Vistula River. The church is in the form of a three-aisle basilica with a transept. It has two high towers capped with spires and a lower one in the middle. On the façade, over the entrance, is a mosaic with the figure of Christ. The interior is decorated with plaster and brick — the dominant colour being white and red. On the pedestals in the right and left aisles are, respectively, the statues of St. Florian and St. Michael the Archangel, the patrons of the temple.

The Cathedral became a model for most of neo-Gothic churches built on the territory of Poland which became part of the Russian Empire after the partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Cathedral was also erected as a counterbalance to the nearby magnificent Bysantine Orthodox Church of St. Mary Magdalene, a symbol of tsarist rule in Poland. During World War II, the Cathedral was blown up by the retreating German troops within one day in 1944. Its full reconstruction, with the use of original 19th century red bricks, lasted until 1972. The only elements of the construction not affected by the explosion were fragments of the transept with the statues of the two patron saints.

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Bibliography and Further Reading

Jaroszewski, Tadeusz S. O siedzibach neogotyckich w Polsce. Warszawa: Panstwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe 1981.

Knox, Brian. The Architecture of Poland. London: Barrie and Jenkins, 1971.

Lewis, Michael J. The Gothic Revival in Europe. London: Thames & Hudson, 2002.

Milobedzki, Adam. Zarys dziejow architektury polskiej. Warszawa: Wiedza Powszechna, 1977.

Muthesius, Stefan. Art, Architecture and Design in Poland, 966-1990: An Introduction. Königstein im Taunus: Langewiesche Nachfolger H. Köster Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1994.

Last modified 18 August 2011