Sculptures on the facade – a series of six sculptures

The facade of the Bielany church is decorated with seven life-size sculptures made of sandstone. At the very top – a statue of the Virgin Mary, to whom the church is dedicated.

The other six figures are placed in niches below. They depict saints associated with the Camaldolese tradition and particularly popular at the time. In the bottom row, symmetrically on either side of the entrance, there are obelisks of St. Benedict (on the left), the author of the rule, and St. Romuald (on the right), the founder of the order.

In the row above, the artist placed monuments of St. John Cantius (the patron saint of Poland and Lithuania, buried in Cracow), St. Nicholas (bishop), St. Boniface (Benedictine missionary and martyr) and St. John Nepomucene (patron saint of Bohemia and Silesia).

The prominent Lombard architect, also active in Bohemia, Adrea Spezza (pre-1580-pre-1628) is considered the creator of the church’s monumental facade. In our part of EuropeIt, it was one of the first implementations of a fully modern facade combining features of Baroque and Mannerism. Construction was completed after the architect’s death in 1630, and consecrated in 1642.