Churches

Tarnów’s Catholic history is celebrated with one or two outstanding churches and a number of other religious buildings and sights of particular note. As well as its awesome Cathedral and two lovely small wooden churches, other highlights around the city include the Former Bernardine Church, built in 1468 and still retaining some of its original Gothic features, its 18th-century contemporary Baroque counterpart, and the Gothic Bernadine Monastery, no longer in active use and dating from the late 15th century. Also well worth having a look around, and located between the two wooden churches in the southern part of the city, lies the Old Catholic Cemetery. A haunting yet strangely serene testament to Tarnów’s rich cultural past, it dates from 1790 and features over 4,000 graves as well as monuments to the 1831 and 1863 insurgencies and the victims of the 1846 peasant riot. Also worth looking at are the two modern monuments to the right of the entrance. Closest to the main gates is a suitably austere commemoration to those who lost their lives between 1939 and 1945, complete with two huge swords and a small girl weeping against a wall. A little further on is an unknown piece of concrete, almost certainly from communist times, and featuring three slightly abstract figures striking the most extraordinary pose.