this church of St. Barbara. It was originally one of two naves of equal height; but both the interior and the exterior of the church have been thoroughly modernized; only the west front with its steep gable-end has remained unchanged. Here we see a charming porch in late Gothic style, squeezed in between two buttresses (illustration 27), with a little mortuary chapel, vaulted, and showing already sculptured consoles and keystones. The refinement of the ornamental forms, particularly the fantastic profusion of foliage, and the sculpture, cannot be otherwise accounted for than by the influence of Vitus Stoss's master-hand.
In the sixteenth century St. Barbara's Church, at the intercession of King Sigismund I, was given up to the Germans of Cracow, the German sermons having disappeared from St. Mary's Church in 1537, owing to the preponderance of the Polish element.
A group by itself is formed by the Gothic hall churches. In 1257 Boleslaus the Modest had called the Order of the Cæsarites from Prague to Cracow, and given them a basilica of three naves, dedicated to St. Mark, to which a choir was adjoined. About 1500 this was changed into a picturesque Gothic hall with a low tower.
Among the most noteworthy medieval churches of Cracow is the small, one-aisled church of the Holy Cross, built in the sixteenth century in the latest forms of Gothic style; it is to be considered as a hospital church, having formerly been in connection with the Hospital of the Holy Ghost. It consists of a chancel with a rectangular chevet, and a square nave, in the middle of which there stands a slender round pillar; from this the ribs of the star-shaped vault issue palm-like, which produces a highly artistic effect (illustration 28). At the west front there is a tower and two chapels of later date, which by their forms still recall the medieval ones. Both choir and nave still retain the old wall paintings. Besides the pictures, the church contains some interesting objects of applied art, such as the brass font of 1420, and the stalls.
