The Royal Gniezno Cathedral (The Primatial Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Shrine of St. Adalbert, Polish: Bazylika Archikatedralna Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Marii Panny i Sanktuarium św. Wojciecha) is a Brick Gothic cathedral located in the historical city of Gniezno that served as the coronation place for several Polish monarchs and as the seat of Polish church officials continuously for nearly 1000 years. Throughout its long and tragic history, the building stayed mostly intact, making it one of the oldest and most precious sacral monuments in Poland. The cathedral is known for its twelfth-century (ca. 1175), two-winged bronze doors decorated with scenes of martyrdom of St. Adalbert of Prague and a silver relic coffin of that saint. The coffin was made by Peter von der Rennen of pure silver in 1662 after the previous one, established in 1623 by King Sigismund III Vasa himself, was robbed by the Swedes in 1655, during the Swedish invasion. The temple is one of Poland`s national Historical Monuments (Pomnik historii), as designated on September 16, 1994, and tracked by the National Heritage Board of Poland.
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ARCHIKATEDRA GNIEŹNIEŃSKA
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Latin
Reverse description
The Gniezno Doors are a pair of bronze doors placed at the entrance to Gniezno Cathedral in Gniezno, Poland. They are decorated with eighteen bas-relief scenes from the life of St. Adalbert (in Polish, Wojciech), whose remains had been purchased for their weight in gold and brought back to, and enshrined in, the cathedral. The cathedral is a Gothic building which the doors predate, having been carried over from an earlier temple. The doors were made around 1175, in the reign of Mieszko III the Old, and are one of the most important works of Romanesque art in Poland.
