Built between 1967 and 1977, Nowa Huta’s first house of worship was designed by Wojciech Pietrzyk and was pieced together brick by brick by volunteer workers with no assistance from the communist authorities. The complete opposite of what Nowa Huta was meant to stand for, Arka Panna is a remarkable building, and a true symbol of the Polish belief in Catholicism. With no outside help it was down to the locals mix cement with spades, and find the two million stones needed for the church’s facade. The first corner stone was laid in 1969 by Cardinal Karol Wojtyla, who would later assume fame as Pope John Paul II. But the discovery of a WWII ammunition dump delayed work, and the precarious removal of some 5,000 mines and shells had to be completed before work was resumed. Finally, on May 15, 1977, the church was finally consecrated. Built to resemble Noah’s Ark, with a 70 metre mast-shaped crucifix rising from the middle, the church houses a mind-boggling array of treasures, including a stone from the tomb of St Peter in the Vatican, a tabernacle containing a fragment of rutile brought back from the moon by the crew of Apollo 11 and a controversial statue of Christ that shows him not on a cross, but about to fly to the heavens. No surprises that it’s the work of Bronislaw Chromy, the same lunatic behind the Wawel Dragon statue and Dzok the Dog. And if you thought it couldn’t get weirder then you hadn’t gambled on the statue dedicated to Our Lady the Armoured – get this, the half metre sculpture is made from ten kilograms of shrapnel removed from Polish soldiers wounded at the Battle of Monte Cassino. The church became a focal point during the anti-communist protests of the early 1980s, not least for the shelter it afforded the locals from the militia. Protesting during the period of Martial Law was dangerous business, and that’s proved by the monument dedicated to Bogdan Wlosik more or less opposite the church. Wlosik was shot in the chest by security services, and later died of his injuries. His death outraged the people, and his funeral was attended by 20,000 mourners. The monument commemorating the site of his death was erected in 1992 and is a tribute to all those who died during this period.
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Can anyone provide a photograph of Arka Panna Church, as well as its altar. There was a photo in the May 1972 issue of National Geographic; however, that was so long ago. I just love modern Polish sculpture - - and this church's Jesus on the crucifix is a classic example, as are the follow-ing monuments: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising; The Warsaw WWII Nike; the Wola; the Chopin in Warsaw, to mention a few.