Kościół pw. Świętego Franciszka Salezego, Kraków

The Church of St. Francis de Sales is a Baroque convent church of Kraków’s Visitation Sisters at the corner of Krowoderska and Biskupia streets. Completed in 1695 to Jan Solari’s plans, it preserves rich interior decoration, a crowned image of Our Lady of Perpetual Help, and a convent-wall sundial.

At Krowoderska 16, on the corner with Biskupia Street, this is the Church of St. Francis de Sales, the convent church of Kraków’s Visitation Sisters. Locals also call it the Visitation Sisters Church.

The sisters arrived in Kraków in 1681 through Bishop Jan Małachowski, and building began in 1692. By 1695, the church was completed to plans by Jan Solari. Notice the facade: it has no towers and finishes in a triangular gable.

Its Baroque character belongs to the exuberant seventeenth-century church style that uses drama, movement, and rich decoration. Inside, the preserved Baroque furnishings include paintings from the lives of Francis de Sales and Jeanne de Chantal, who founded the Visitation order. The treasury also holds eighteenth-century textiles and liturgical vestments.

A revered image here, Our Lady of Perpetual Help, received papal crowns in 1929. In the nuns’ choir rests the heart of Bishop Małachowski himself. On the convent wall, find the sundial carrying the terse reminder: “Life is a short dream.”