Martin M. Miles' photos with the keyword: Stanislaus of Szczepanów

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. - The Wawel Hill has been the seat of secular and ecclesiastical power since the early Middle Ages. Mieszko I the first historical ruler and creator of the Polish state, chose the hill as the site of one of his residences. His baptism in 966 brought Poland into the orbit of Western culture. The Wawel Cathedral (officialy "Bazylika archikatedralna św. Stanisława i św. Wacława w Krakowie") is for about 1000 years part of the Wawel Castle Complex. The current Gothic cathedral is the third edifice on this site, the Cathedral of St. Wenceslas from 1020 was destroyed in 1038 by the Czech prince Břetislav, the Romanesque cathedral, consecrated in 1142, with the tomb of the holy Stanislaus, burnt down in 1305. A few years later the construction of a Gothic cathedral, started. This was completed in 1346. Since Krakow was Poland's capital until 1609 and the royal castle stood on Wawel Hill, the cathedral also served as the court church, and Poland's kings were buried in the crypt. The Sigismund Bell Tower, built in the second half of the 14th century as part of the fortifications, houses the most venerable bell in Poland, called "Sigismundus". Poland's holy queen Jadwiga (Hedwig of Poland) was buried in the cathedral in 1399. After the Middle Ages, several chapels were added to the cathedral. There are examples of Romanesque, Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, Neoclassical, and Neogothic elements in the Cathedral's façade and interior. The silver coffin of national patron Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów. It was created between 1669-1671 after the previous one was stolen by the Swedes in 1655.

A fortress of a regional tribe is attested here. After its destruction, Casimir I the Restorer, son of Mieszko II Lambert, had a castle built here. In 1205 Roman of Volhynia unsuccessfully besieged the castle. In 1241 Lublin was destroyed by the Tatars. In 1244 the place was conquered by Lithuanians, in the same year, Daniel Romanovich of Galicia conquered and fortified it. Under the protection of the castle, the settlement developed into a trade center. In 1317 it received the town charter. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the town grew rapidly. The largest trade fairs of the Polish-Lithuanian community were held in Lublin. In the 16th century, the parliaments (Sejm) of the Kingdom of Poland were held in Lublin several times. At one of the most important ones, the "Union of Lublin" was proclaimed in 1569, uniting Poland and Lithuania. After the capital was moved from Krakow to Warsaw in 1596, Lublin was located away from the main traffic and trade routes. As a result, there was an economic and cultural decline. In the course of the Counter-Reformation, the Protestants were forcibly expelled from the city in 1631, so many merchants emigrated. In 1655 Cossacks sacked the town and the following year Swedish soldiers. After the Northern War, the reconstruction of the town began. Stanislaus II August Poniatowski allowed Protestants to settle in the city again. At this time, a significant Jewish community was also established. The Jews were an important part of life in the city until the Holocaust. During WWII they were deported by Nazi Germany to the infamous Lublin Ghetto and eventually murdered. After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Lublin was part of the Austrian Empire, after the Austro-Polish War of 1809 it was part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815 it was part of Congress Poland as part of the Russian partition of Poland. Russian rule ended in 1915 when the city was occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian armies. After the end of WWI, the Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland - the first government of independent Poland - was based in Lublin for a short time. - The church and the Dominican monastery were founded in 1342 by King Casimir the Great after he had defeated the Tatars in the battle of Lublin a year before. The basilica is dedicated to Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów, Bishop of Krakow, who was martyred by the Polish king Bolesław II the Generous in 1079. The church was enjoying international renown thanks to the miraculous relics of the Holy Cross. According to one of the legends, the procession with the reliquary saved the city from a tragic fire in 1719. Unfortunately, in 1991, the relics stored in the church for centuries were stolen.