Badania zakrystii kościoła św. Andrzeja w Krakowie – kaplicy grobowej Tęczyńskich?

RESEARCH ON THE SACRISTY OF ST ANDREW’S CHURCH IN KRAKÓW – THE SEPULCHRAL CHAPEL OF THE TĘCZYŃSKI FAMILY? Adjacent to the presbytery of St Andrew’s Church (kościół św. Andrzeja) in Kraków – the Clarissine convent church – is a Gothic sacristy whose form resembles that of an elongated (8 m) chapel, its east end closed trilaterally. In 2011 conservation works were carried out in the sacristy. The scope of these works included the removal of soil accumulated under the floor and deep trial excavations under the archaeological supervision of Janusz Firlet and Paweł Kajfasz. In the course of that survey, a partly preserved brick altar (chest type) and, in front of the altar, an underground vault were discovered in the eastern section of the room. These discoveries have led to the conclusion that the present-day sacristy of the Romanesque church was originally (from the third quarter of the 14th century onward) used as a sepulchral chapel. An exploration of the burial chamber was subsequently conducted, in the course of which two human male skeletons were discovered: one of a man of advanced age (ca. 80 years old) at the bottom of the chamber, and the other of a slightly younger man (ca. 60–65 years old) buried above. No objects that could help in the identification of the dead were found in the tomb. Anthropological and genetic analyses conducted by a team of experts under the supervision of Prof. Henryk Głąb have revealed that the two men buried in the vault represent two different anthropological types and are, therefore, not related. In several sections of the chapel remnants of the original tiled floor were found, mainly in the form of mortar underlayment with imprints of ceramic floor tiles and remains of the tiles (18 x 18.5 cm). Partly uncovered at the west wall of the sacristy was the original side apse (N) of a Romanesque basilica (11th/12th cent.) which had been levelled during the construction of the chapel. It was ascertained that the apse, buried under layers of the church graveyard (13th–14th), is connected with the presbytery and the nave of the church. This confirms the opinions which predominate among specialists on the subject, namely that the church of Count Palatine Sieciech (Toporczyk) was built as a homogeneous structure. A hypothesis was formed which pointed to the probable link between the foundation of the brick chapel and the powerful Toporczyk-Tęczyński family, the original patrons of St Andrew’s Church who owned vast properties in the immediate vicinity of the church in the 14th and the 15th centuries. Therefore, the builder of the chapel with the vault near the altar could be the Starosta and Castellan of Kraków, Jan of Tęczyn (Tęczyński), who after his death at an advanced age (in 1405) was buried in the sanctuary (the skeleton on the bottom of the tomb). The supposed Tęczyńki family chapel ceased to fulfil its original function by the 17th century at the latest, and was then transformed into the sacristy of the Clarissine convent church.