Kościół pw. Niepokalanego Serca Najświętszej Marii Panny, Kraków

Kościół pw. Niepokalanego Serca Najświętszej Marii Panny is a Roman Catholic parish and Felician convent church on Smoleńsk Street in Kraków’s Nowy Świat quarter. Built in the eighteen eighties for sisters displaced after the January Uprising, it has a crowned tower and contains the grave of the Felician founder, Blessed Mother Angela.

At Smoleńsk 6, this is the Church of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a Roman Catholic parish church and the convent church of the Felician sisters in Kraków’s Nowy Świat quarter. It was built between 1882 and 1884 to designs by Feliks Księżarski for Felician sisters expelled from the Russian partition after the defeat of the January Uprising. Notice the golden crown on the tower.

Its design follows the crown of St Mary’s Basilica, creating a deliberate link with Kraków’s celebrated church skyline. Inside, the church holds the grave of Blessed Mother Angela, founder of the Felician congregation. The sisters’ history extends beyond these walls.

In 1931, they gave up part of their garden at the corner of Straszewskiego and Zwierzyniecka streets in exchange for a farm at Tyniec. A Catholic House containing the Świt cinema was built on that plot, and the Philharmonic now occupies the site. In a small house beside the garden, the sisters also ran Sister Salomea’s Student Kitchen.