Page:Cracow - Lepszy.djvu/97

 GOTHIC STYLE IN CRACOW ART the end of the saddle roof, which are characteristic of Cracow Gothic art, have preserved the original arrangement of triangular flat spaces and stone ornaments.

After the great fire of 1850 the church was but poorly restored. To a brother of the Order, who had no taste for art, it is indebted for such architectural additions as the new porch, which quite overshadows the magnificent fourteenth-century portal, or the modern high altar.

Besides the metropolis of Cracow, the rival town of Kazimierz, now a suburb, also developed Gothic architecture. Casimir the Great, after founding it, had called from Prague a colony of monks of the great mendicant Order of St. Augustine. The foundation stone of their church was laid in 1342, but it was not till 1378 that the choir was completed, the church consecrated and dedicated to St. Catherine. The body and the splendid porch are of fifteenth century origin (illustration 25).