St. Norbert's Convent, Krakow

Saint Norbert’s Convent was first built in the 12th century by Jaxa Gryfita, a Zwierzyniec knight. The Convent was victim to the Tartarian invasion of 1241. Dorota Kątska, the Prioress of the Premonstratensian nuns built the Church again in 1636 in Zwierzyniec, which was still outside the city’s limits, where it fell prey to the attack of Archduke Maximilian Habsburg. It was then decided to move the Church within the boundaries of the city to its current location, a short walk away from Wawel Castle on the Vistula River.

The Austrian authorities closed the Convent down in 1803 and a part of the building went to the Jagiellonian University while the Church was absorbed under the Uniate parish. The Fire of 1850 did not spare this closed Convent and the Church interiors got a facelift in the 19th century. In the mid-1960s, another floor was added to this Baroque structure and then the building was used as the Faculty of Chemistry by the Jagiellonian University. It is here, that in 1883 that air was liquefied by Zygmunt Wróblewski and Karol Olszewski, after whom the college is named today.

Legend has it that every year on June 24, the monastery’s old bell resurfaces and its toll is heard into the night. It is a crude reminder of the Tartarian invasion. The Convent offers a glimpse of history, mystery and science to all of its visitors and can hardly be missed when you are in Krakow.