The Franciscan church is among the oldest brick buildings in Kraków; the order arrived here in 1237. After the city fire of 1850 the interior needed complete renewal, and the commission went to Stanisław Wyspiański.
He designed the wall decoration, built on plant motifs, and a set of stained glass windows. The largest of them, known as God the Father, sits above the choir loft. It is regarded as one of the central works of Polish Art Nouveau and often as the finest thing Wyspiański made in glass.
The cloisters hold a gallery of portraits of the bishops of Kraków, parts of it going back to the fifteenth century. The church stands on the Royal Route, opposite the Bishops’ Palace, from whose window John Paul II spoke with crowds during his visits.