Church of St Margaret and St Judith
ul. bł. Bronisławy 8
A wooden church covered with wooden shingles can be admired in ulica bł. Bronisławy in the district of Zwierzyniec. Sources claim that it superseded a gontyna, a proto-Slavic place of worship.
Nothing is known about the earliest Christian chapel that existed here. The current wooden church, one of few representing wooden architectural heritage in Kraków, was built according to an octagonal plan in the 17th century. It is listed on the Małopolska Wooden Architecture Route.
The cemetery surrounding the church served the burials of people who perished during numerous epidemic outbreaks. The merciless “plagues” used to attack communities living in major cities over the centuries. The epidemic most dangerous for Kraków was the outbreak of cholera, which harassed the city in 1707, decimating the local population. Those who contracted it were taken outside the city limits, usually to Błonia Common, where they were to wait until healed in provisional shelters. Most of them, however, succumbed to death. Their bodies were subsequently taken to Sikornik (the hill known today as that of the blessed Bronisława – wzgórze bł. Bronisławy), and buried in deep pits, where they were covered with quicklime: the only disinfectant known and available. After some decades, their remains were transferred to another cemetery, by the nearby Church of the Holiest Saviour.