Pauline Church of SS Michael & Stanislaus

Lonely Planet review

If you begin at the base of Wawel Hill and walk south along the river bank, just past the Grundwald Bridge you'll see the Pauline Church of SS Michael & Stanislaus, commonly known to Poles as the Skałka (Rock) due to its location; it was built on a rocky promontory, which is no longer pronounced. Today's mid-18th-century Baroque church is the third building on the site, previously occupied by a Romanesque rotunda and later a Gothic church. It is associated with Bishop Stanisław (Stanislaus) Szczepanowski, canonised in 1253 and now patron saint of Poland. You can even see the tree trunk (on the altar to the left and encased in glass), believed to be the same one on which King Bolesław Śmiały (Boleslaus the Bold) beheaded the bishop in 1079.

The cult of the saint has turned the place into a sort of a national pantheon. The crypt underneath the church shelters the tombs of 12 eminent Poles including the composer Karol Szymanowski and painters Jacek Malczewski and Stanisław Wyspiański.