"Cupola Chapels in Poland"

Centrally planned chapels with cupolas attached to churches are a characteristic element of Polish landscape. In the 16th and the 17th century, on the territory of contemporary Poland 150 chapels were built. The tradition of building chapels with cupolas started in the middle of the 16th century, reached the top in the 17th century, and it lasted also in the 18th century. In the second half of the l9th century, it revived in researches of national style.
Most of the chapels joined memorial and devotional functions. The founders of chapels were kings, magnates, spiritual lords, nobility and later also townspeople.
This big popularity of chapels with cupolas was initiated by two great realisations created by the workshop of a Florentine artist - Bartolomeo Berrecci. Both chapels were added to the gothic cathedral erected on the Wawel hill in Krakow. The first was the king Sigismund's chapel (built in 1517-33) and the second was its simpler version - the bishop Tomicki's chapel (started 9 years later 1526 and finished in 1535). The second, simpler Tomicki chapel did not have the drum, and the sculptured decoration was replaced by the mural paintings. It was not as rich as the king's chapel.

Not before 1550 next repetitions of the Berrecci's example, similar in form to the bishop Tomicki's chapel, were built. Till the nineties of the 16th century, the chapels with cupolas were really rare, only eight chapels, not counting the Sigismund chapel, were erected. Six from these eight first chapels were bishops' foundations, and four of them were added to the Cracovian cathedral on Wawel hill. As we can see, the first repetitions were created almost only among bishops and mainly among Cracovian bishops. It seems that the reason of that was a very complicated program of the Sigismund chapel, which could be understood and appreciated only in circles close to the humanistic atmosphere of the king's court. In these, as in the next chapels, the general form and idea were repeated. As the first example - the Sigismund chapel was too rich - most often the simpler version of the bishop Tornicki's chapel was repeated. In these chapels we usually could find: niches with an altar, a tombstone and stalls, sometimes there were niches for statues in lower part of the chapel. Very often shields with coats of arms were on the pendentives, and in cupolas there were coffers with rosettes. The sculptural decorations of the insides were replaced by mural paintings.
The bishop Maciejowski's chapel was the first chapel to be constructed on Wawel after two Berrecci's examples. It was built probably by an Italian architect Giovanni Maria Padovano in years 1551-52. The next chapels at the Cracovian cathedral were erected by a Polish Architect Jan Michalowicz from Urzedów (the bishop Zebrzydowski's chapel 1562-63 and the bishop Padniewski's chapel 1572-75).

From 1590 the number of chapels suddenly increased. The workshop of another Florentine artist - Santi Gucci - took over the type of a chapel from Jan Michalowicz from Urzedów. Santi Gucci brought to the climax exuberant decoration characteristic for the mannerist trend in art (the Firlej family chapel in Bejsce built about 1593-1600 by an architect with the unknown name). The trend of the exuberant decoration disappeared in chapels added to the Dominican church in Krakow. They were built by the workshop which succeeded to the heritage of the Santi Gucci's workshop. The inside decoration of these chapels was made on the scheme of triumphal arch which reminds us of the Sigismund chapel (e.g. the Myszkowski family chapel).
From the beginning of the 17th century the type of the chapel with cupola spread all over the contemporary Poland. The regional types were created; for example a group of chapels built in the region of Lublin. The characteristic element for this group was the decoration of cupola vaultings. The vaultings were made of stucco's rolls which formed circles and polygonal shapes reminding the coffers (e.g. the Firlej family chapel in Lublin). Another regional group was created by the octagonal chapels in Wielkopolska (i.e. central-west Poland of today, e.g. the Gostomski family chapel in Sroda).
The new conception, in this time, was the pair of chapels built at the two sides of the church, symmetrically to the longitudinal axis (popular especially in years 1620-50). There were two variants of it: the first is found in basilican churches or Jesuits type churches. In this variant the chapels close the aisles from the east. It originates in medieval twins chapels built next to the choir (e.g. the pair of chapels in Lezajsk). The second variant is made by two chapels distinctly added on both sides of the church. These chapels with the nave form a shape of the cross (sometimes they are called "transept chapels"; e.g. the pair of chapels in Turobin). The origins of the second variant are derived from two monumental pope's chapels in the basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome - the chapel del Presepio built in 1584-90 by Domenico Fontana for Sixtus V (Cappella Sistina) and the Borghese chapel for Paul V (Cappella Paolina) built in 1605-11 by Ponzio Flaminio. They create a kind of a transept. Also two sacristies of the church San Lorenzo in Florence (the Old Sacristy built by Brunelleschi 1421-28, the New Sacristy built by Michelangelo Buonarroti 1520-33), which are at the same time the mausoleums of the family de' Medici, might have some influence on the Polish pairs chapels.
Till the end of the 16th century more important was the memorial function of the chapels. First of all they were the place of the eternal rest for some famous people. At the beginning, big and very decorative tombstones were built which agreed with the mannerist tendency in art. This type of inside decoration remains also in the first half of the 17th century but at the same time, from the end of the 16th century, the devotional function started to be more and more important. It was the result of the counterreformation ideology. The chapels with cupolas became a form of manifesting the post Trent devotion. A well suiting tombstone (or rather monument) with the kneeling figures in the pose of eternal adoration appeared. More often the memorial elements were reduced: the simple epitaphs were used instead of decorative tombstones. It led to the disappearance of sepulchral character of many chapels. As at the same time, the purely devotional chapels were built (also as the separate chapels not attached to a church; e.g. the Saint Ann chapel in Pinczów), having the same architectural form that memorial chapels, the differences between mausoleums and the purely devotional chapels became less and less distinguished. In this process the transept chapels took an important part, as they were the place of collective brotherhood burials.
The counterreformation tendency to the anonymous burial place, emphasized by the architectural form was realized by the porches with copulas erected in this time (e.g. the porch next to the Corpus Christi church in Krakow). From the medieval times people were buried in porches of the churches. The porches took the form of the chapels with cupolas, which symbolized their hidden sepulchral function. Sometimes just the outside portal differs a porch from a chapel. In a few porches simple epitaphs from the 17th century remained. They have characteristic texts in which the anonymous sinners ask passing by people for a prayer.
In course of time the group of founders grew, and consisted mainly of magnates and rich nobility (some chapels at the castles also took the form of the cupola chapels). Bishops' foundations at this time were rare, but there were first townspeople's foundations (e.g. the Boim family chapel in Lvov).

At the end of the third decade of the 17th century the first baroque chapels appeared. The leading role during all the time of building chapels had Malopolska (the south of Poland). It retained the leading role also in baroque time. After 1630 the region types disappeared.
In this period the inside walls of chapels were faced with black marble. Black marble often stood in contrast with white stucco decoration of the upper part of a chapel (e.g. the bishop Zadzik's chapel). Whereas in simpler realizations stucco dominated.
These black, mournful insides of chapels were initiated by a very good foundation of the duke Zbaraski family at the Dominican church in Krakow (1627-33). It is difficult to find anything similar in Rome at this time. A few years later, Constatino Tencalla built the Saint Casimir chapel at the cathedral in Vilnius (1632-36). It was the king's foundation (Saint Casimir was the king Sigismund's brother). Its interior decoration referred to the pope's chapels at the basilica Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
After a break, new chapels were constructed at the Cracovian cathedral on Wawel hill: the chapel of the bishop Lipski (about 1634 and 1743-46), the bishop Zadzik's chapel (1645-50), and the next king's chapel of Waza dynasty (1664-66).
A lot of simpler chapels were built too. All the time, the simpler version without the drum dominated. There were also chapels on the octagonal, oval-shaped and Greek cross plans.
The new chapels were often bigger than in the previous periods, especially the purely devotional chapels. The tradition of rustication and of the scheme of the triumphal arch was continued but the coffers with rosettes in cupolas disappeared. Instead of it, we had the paintings in frames or illusory architectural divisions in copulas.
Among several tens of cupola chapels built in the second and third quarter of the 17th century, purely devotional foundations considerably outnumbered the memorial foundations. The big Mary's chapels stood out (e.g. the chapels of the Corpus Christi church, and the Carmelitan church in Krakow). Even in sepulchral chapels the emphasized devotional function dominated.
Exceptional and interesting return to the prototype, that is the Sigisimund chapel, is the king Waza's chapel built in years 1664-66 at the Cracovian cathedral. Its outside decoration was the faithful repetition of the Jagiellonian chapel. The reason for such a faithful repetition of the Sigismund chapel, was not only the desire to create the symmetrical baroque composition at the south entrance to the cathedral but, first of all, there was a desire to emphasize the close connection of both dynasties.
To sum up, as you can see the first great prototype built by a Florentine architect was adapted very well in Poland. It had many repetitions. It developed in different regional types. The Sigismund chapel initiated the tradition of building central chapels with cupolas for a long time. The type created by a Florentine architect inspired Polish founders and different architects for several centuries. In the l9th century the cupola chapels were treated as the element of the Polish national style.