Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: predella

A legend attributes Kraków's founding to the mythical ruler Krakus, who built it above a cave occupied by a dragon, Smok Wawelski. The first written record dates to 965, when Kraków was described as a notable commercial center captured by a Bohemian duke Boleslaus I in 955. The first ruler of Poland, Mieszko I, took Kraków from the Bohemians. In 1038, Kraków became the seat of the Polish government. By the end of the 10th century, the city was a center of trade. Brick buildings were constructed, including the Royal Wawel Castle. The city was sacked and burned during the Mongol invasion of 1241. It was rebuilt and incorporated in 1257 by Bolesław V the Chaste who introduced city rights. In 1259, the city was again ravaged by the Mongols. The third attack in 1287 was repelled thanks in part to the newly built fortifications. The city rose to prominence in 1364, when Casimir III founded the University of Kraków, the second oldest university in central Europe. But after Casimir´s death in 1370 the campus did not get completed. As the capital of the Kingdom of Poland and a member of the Hanseatic League, the city attracted craftsmen from abroad, guilds as science and the arts began to flourish. The 15th and 16th centuries are known as Poland's "Złoty Wiek" (Golden Age). After childless King Sigismund II had died in 1572, the Polish throne passed to Henry III of France and then to other foreign-based rulers in rapid succession, causing a decline in the city's importance that was worsened by pillaging during the Swedish invasion and by an outbreak of bubonic plague that left 20,000 of the city's residents dead. In 1596, Sigismund III of the House of Vasa moved the capital of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from Kraków to Warsaw. - In the place of a Romanesque church, that got destroyed during the Mongol invasion, the early Gothic Church of St. Mary was built on the northeast corner of the market square at the end of the 13th century. It got consecrated in 1320. The church was completely rebuilt during the reign of Casimir III the Great between 1355 and 1365. The main body of the church was completed in 1395–97 with the new vault constructed by master Nicholas Wernher from Prague. In the 18th century, the interior was rebuilt in the late Baroque style. In the years 1887–1891, the neo-Gothic design was introduced into the Basilica. The altarpiece by Veit Stoss is a large Gothic altarpiece and the most important work of art in the basilica. It is located behind the altar of St. Mary. The altarpiece was created between 1477 and 1489 by the German-born sculptor Veit Stoss, who lived and worked in the city for over 20 years. The retable of the Marian altar is a pentaptych, which means that it has five wings. It consists of a central part with sculptures, a pair of opening inner wings and a pair of fixed outer wings. Both pairs of wings are decorated with reliefs. The structure is completed by a predella in relief on the altarpiece and an openwork keystone with massive sculptures. It is made of three types of wood. The structure is made of hard oak, the background of lighter but equally strong larch, while the figures are carved of soft and flexible linden. The predella has a representation of the root of Jesse. From the body of the father of King David grows the trunk of a vine, on the branches of which are attached fourteen ancestors of Jesus.

With more than 200.000 inhabitants Rostock is the largest city in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Small Slavic settlements existed already in the 8th century. A settlement named Roztok was founded in the 11th century by Polabian Slavs. This town was burnt down by troops of the Danish king Valdemar I in 1161. Afterwards the place was settled by German traders. After 1226 Rostock became the seat of the Lordship of Rostock. In the 1250s the city became a member of the Hanseatic League. In the 14th century, it was a powerful seaport town with 12,000 inhabitants and the largest city in Mecklenburg. Ships for cruising the Baltic Sea were constructed in Rostock. Until the last Hansa Convention in 1669, Rostock took a leading role in the Baltic Sea behind Lübeck. - The museum, founded mid 19th century, is hosted in the "Kloster zum Heiligen Kreuz", that got finally dissolved in 1920. The conversion into a museum began already in 1976, but the restoration of the buildings remained incomplete until 1997. The winged Nonnenaltar (nun's altar) was created in the early 16th century. Its former location was in the church's nuns' gallery, thus the name. The wings show depictions from the legend of the finding of the cross by Empress Helena. The entombment of Jesus and Christ's descent into hell. Both details of the predella.