his church situated
on the Church square on the Ostrow Tumski island makes up a special
architectural curiosity — the only Gothic church in Poland, which has
got two levels. It was sponsored by Henry the Just, a prince, whose
remnants rested in the church in the year 1295, when the building of
this church was finished and it remained there till 1945.
The legend says that the Prince swore to build a church on Ostrow
under the call of saint Bartholomew, the patron of the ducal family in
order to ask for health to all the crucially ill dukes. During the
building a root was found in the ground of a bizarre shape, resembling
of two figures sunken in prayer at the feet of a crucified Christ. The
bishop recognized it as a miraculous sign and he demanded that the
church should be build under the call of the saint Cross. Not wanting to
break the promise, the duke ordered to build two churches one on top of
the other — firstly saint Bartholomew, and above it, on the same plan,
the church of the saint Cross. Supposedly with the saint Cross and saint
Bartholomew another miraculous event is connected: a roofer had slipped
on the roof construction and fell tens meters in the pit. His overcoat
with the Divine decree however expanded as a parachute and the worker
landed softly and safely on the earth.
