Gniezno Cathedral

Gniezno was the seat of the first Polish archbishopric, founded in the year 1000, and the Gothic brick cathedral that stands there now covers the remains of the earlier churches beneath it. Inside the south porch hang the Gniezno Doors, two bronze leaves cast around 1175 and divided into eighteen relief panels telling the life of Saint Adalbert, whose remains lie under a silver shrine carried on columns in the nave. The doors are the finest Romanesque bronze work in the country and were made in one piece for each leaf. Below the floor, a lit underground route runs through the foundations of the churches that came before.

What you actually see

• The bronze doors - eighteen Romanesque relief panels cast around 1175 in the south porch.
• The silver shrine - the seventeenth century reliquary of Saint Adalbert raised on angels in the nave.
• The underground route - foundations and fragments of the earlier churches under the floor.
• The tower climb - a stair up to the roofs of a town that once crowned kings.

When to go

Weekday mornings outside service times are best, since the cathedral is a working church and visits stop during Mass. April to October keeps the crypt and tower open on longer hours. The doors are lit but the porch is dim, so a bright day helps. Early May brings pilgrimages and processions and a much fuller building.

Honest expectations

Gniezno is a small provincial town and there is not a great deal else to fill a day. The cathedral interior is austere and largely rebuilt after fire and wartime damage, so the doors and the shrine do most of the work. Labelling is thin and often Polish only. The underground route is short and cool, and low in places.

Nearby

The reconstructed Iron Age lake settlement at Biskupin and the island church at Lednica lie on the same route.