Romańskie kościoły przedlokacyjnej osady tzw. Okołu - wczesnośredniowieczne fundacje możnych w Krakowie

Romanesque churches of pre-charter settlement called "The Okół" - early medieval foundations by magnates in Krakow.

Pre-charter Krakow was not a homogenous unit as regards forms of settlement. Wawel, which was the dukes' abode, came to the foreground. However. in the course of establishment of the Polish rulers' abode in the city of Krakow economic life moved to surrounding settlements. In the century the settlement situated at the very foot of Wawel Hill (to the north) called the Okół was the main of them. It was becoming populated with the increase in the number of servile people at the Duke's court, predominantly by those working for the ruler and the Church. That was also the place where substantial part of the elite of the authorities settled. Its wealthier representatives erected their family churches within the boundaries of the Okół.
This paper presents briefly the medieval history of four places of worship, which were raised within the boundaries of the Okół and founded (indubitably or presumably) by contemporary magnates.
1. St Andrew Church: erected between 1079 and 1098 with the endowment of Sieciech who was Duke Władysław Herman's palatine. The church was given the character of a secular canons' collegiate church performing the function, supposedly. of the court church as well. It was under the auspices of the Starz-Toporczyk family.
2. St Martin's Church: raised at the beginning of the 13th century with the endowment (or the cooperation) of a member of the Gryfit family (according to the tradition it was Piotr Dunin or his grandson Jaksy of Miechów, both of the Gryfit family). Two families, the Ostój and the Gryfit families, were its patrons.
3. St Mary Magdalen's Church: built in the first hall' of the 13th century. founded by one of the magnate families (?).
4. St Peter's Chapel: erected in the 13th century (?), founded by one of the magnate families (?).
St Andrew's Church was the only one of the four sacral structures founded by the magnates, which survived hitherto. Nowadays it belongs to St Clare's Order. Over the centuries the rest of the churches were either thoroughly rebuilt (St Martin's Church. now the Evangelical Church) or destroyed (St Mary Magdalen's Church in 1811 and St Peter's Chapel in 1791).