Church of the Crucifixion
The church was built on Mount Żar called Golgotha, right next to the basilica. It was erected in the seventeenth century. It was built on a rectangular plan with its sides twelve by sixteen meters long. The structure has a gable tin roof with a small tower, the so-called turret. It reaches the height of twenty-three meters. The walls of the temple were built of stone and covered with smoothed beige stone blocks. The chancel, i.e., the part housing the altar, faces east. The front wall with three entrances is the longer side of the temple. This is the wall on the west side. It has a decorative facade. The doors are arranged symmetrically. One right in the middle of the wall, and two on the sides.
The door in the middle is topped with a semicircle, while the side doors are rectangular. All of them are framed with decorative openings, aka portals. Above the central entrance, the portal has a semicircular finial, and the portals above the side entrances have triangular finials. The facade is also decorated with stone pilasters, i.e., flat-surface pillars. Along the upper edge of the wall, we can see a long stretch of decoration with bas-reliefs, or a frieze.
The bas-reliefs depict the Instruments of the Passion – the Crown of Thorns, the Cross, the pincers, the gloves, and the hammer. One of the shorter walls of the temple, on the north side, has a stone balcony.
The church houses three altars. They are located opposite the entrance, by the eastern wall. Above the altars, we can see three large oil paintings hanging in semicircular niches. They depict the following scenes, starting from the right: Christ nailed to the Cross, Crucifixion, Descent from the Cross. To the left of the entrance, on the northern wall, there is a fourth painting. It depicts the scene of Lamentation of Christ. These are copies of original paintings by Father Franciszek Lekszycki. The northern wall also contains a gallery above the narthex with an organ. There are two windows in the southern wall.
The vault of the Church of the Crucifixion is decorated with painted stripes with patterns of stems, leaves, flowers, and grape clusters. It is an illusionistic mural. It gives the impression that the patterns are three-dimensional reliefs.
