Badania zakrystii kościoła św. Andrzeja w Krakowie – kaplicy grobowej Tęczyńskich?

Abstract

RESEARCH ON THE SACRISTY OF ST ANDREW’S CHURCH IN KRAKÓW – THE SEPULCHRAL CHAPEL OF THE TĘCZYŃSKI FAMILY?

Adjacent to the presbytery of St Andrew’s Church (kościół  św. Andrzeja) in Kraków – the Clarissine convent church  – is a Gothic sacristy whose form resembles that of an elongated  (8 m) chapel, its east end closed trilaterally. In 2011 conservation  works were carried out in the sacristy. The scope of  these works included the removal of soil accumulated under  the floor and deep trial excavations under the archaeological  supervision of Janusz Firlet and Paweł Kajfasz. In the course  of that survey, a partly preserved brick altar (chest type) and,  in front of the altar, an underground vault were discovered  in the eastern section of the room. These discoveries have  led to the conclusion that the present-day sacristy of the  Romanesque church was originally (from the third quarter  of the 14th century onward) used as a sepulchral chapel.  An exploration of the burial chamber was subsequently  conducted, in the course of which two human male skeletons  were discovered: one of a man of advanced age (ca. 80  years old) at the bottom of the chamber, and the other of  a slightly younger man (ca. 60–65 years old) buried above.  No objects that could help in the identification of the dead  were found in the tomb. Anthropological and genetic analyses  conducted by a team of experts under the supervision  of Prof. Henryk Głąb have revealed that the two men  buried in the vault represent two different anthropological  types and are, therefore, not related. In several sections of  the chapel remnants of the original tiled floor were found,  mainly in the form of mortar underlayment with imprints  of ceramic floor tiles and remains of the tiles (18 x 18.5  cm). Partly uncovered at the west wall of the sacristy was the  original side apse (N) of a Romanesque basilica (11th/12th  cent.) which had been levelled during the construction of  the chapel. It was ascertained that the apse, buried under  layers of the church graveyard (13th–14th), is connected with  the presbytery and the nave of the church. This confirms  the opinions which predominate among specialists on the  subject, namely that the church of Count Palatine Sieciech  (Toporczyk) was built as a homogeneous structure.  A hypothesis was formed which pointed to the probable  link between the foundation of the brick chapel and  the powerful Toporczyk-Tęczyński family, the original patrons  of St Andrew’s Church who owned vast properties in  the immediate vicinity of the church in the 14th and the  15th centuries. Therefore, the builder of the chapel with  the vault near the altar could be the Starosta and Castellan  of Kraków, Jan of Tęczyn (Tęczyński), who after his death  at an advanced age (in 1405) was buried in the sanctuary  (the skeleton on the bottom of the tomb). The supposed  Tęczyńki family chapel ceased to fulfil its original function  by the 17th century at the latest, and was then transformed  into the sacristy of the Clarissine convent church.