Wislica

Wislica has about five hundred inhabitants and was, in the early Middle Ages, one of the most important places in southern Poland - a ducal seat with a stronghold on the Nida, where the Statutes of Wislica were promulgated under Kazimierz Wielki in the 1340s. Under the present Gothic collegiate church, reached by stairs, are the foundations of two earlier churches and the object that makes the village worth a detour: a gypsum plaster floor of about 1170 engraved with figures - a group at prayer, animals, interlace - scratched into the surface and filled with dark material, unique in Poland and rare anywhere in Europe. It is known as the Wislica floor plate. The church above has fourteenth-century wall paintings in the Byzantine-Ruthenian manner commissioned by Wladyslaw Jagiello, and there is a fifteenth-century canons' house and an archaeological pavilion over the old stronghold.

History

Wiślica was probably a seat of the Vistulans and was joined to Poland by Mieszko I in 990. In the late 1950s archaeologists found here the foundations of a church of the 10th or 11th century and a gypsum font probably used for group baptisms in the 9th century; in 1166-1173 the town was the capital of the Duchy of Wiślica, and Casimir III the Great built the present church in the mid-14th century (Wikipedia, Wiślica).

What to look for

• The engraved floor of about 1170 - figures scratched into gypsum plaster, unique in Poland.
• Foundations of two earlier churches - under the present Gothic building.
• Byzantine-manner wall paintings - fourteenth-century, commissioned by Jagiello.
• A stronghold pavilion - covering the excavated early settlement.

When to go

April to October. Half a day.

Good to know

The underground displays are guided, on set hours, and can close without much notice in a village this small. The floor is dimly lit for conservation. There are almost no services here.

Nearby

Busko-Zdroj spa is north; Nowy Korczyn is south.

Key facts