Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Adalbert is a Gothic cathedral in Gniezno, Poland. The Cathedral is known for its twelfth-century (ca. 1175), two-winged bronze doors decorated with scenes of martyrdom of St. Wojciech 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) was robbed by the Swedes in 1655, during the Deluge.
Relic of Saint Adalbert
Saint Adalbert (c. 956 – April 23, 997), a Bishop of Prague and a missionary, was martyred in his efforts to convert the Baltic Prussians. He was later made the patron saint of Bohemia, Poland, Hungary and Prussia.
Gniezno Doors
The Gniezno Doors are a pair of bronze doors at the entrance to Gniezno Cathedral in Gniezno, Poland, a Gothic building which the doors pre-date, having been carried over from an earlier building. They are decorated with eighteen scenes in bas-relief from the life of St. Adalbert, or Wojciech in Polish, whose remains had been bought for their weight in gold (shown in scene 16), and carried back to the cathedral and set up in a shrine there. They were made in about 1175 during the reign of Mieszko III the Old and are one of the most significant works of Romanesque art in Poland.
Coronation Cathedral - Information plate
