Kościół Akademicki św. Anny
Large Catholic church with an 18th century neoclassical facade
St Anne's Church in Warsaw, for several centuries a Bernardine church and now an academic building, is a significant and distinctive accent in the picturesque skyline of Warsaw. It is one of the oldest churches in Warsaw and one of the few churches with such a high percentage of authenticity, both in terms of the variety of style forms of its body, shaped during almost six centuries of its existence, and in terms of the interior furnishing. View of the body of the church from the side of the Vistula River, with a Gothic apse, framed by scarps and a Baroque gable from 1667.
The church owes its origin to the Kiev princess Anna, née Holshanska, Duchess of Mazovia, widow of Boleslav III, who in 1454 brought the first Franciscans of a stricter rule (Observant friars) from Krakow, who had settled there a year earlier, and who in Poland were called Bernardines (after their founder, St Bernardine of Siena). She gave them a plot of land by the then Trakt Czerski, outside the city walls but close to the Duke's residence, where, with her help, a monastery was built as early as 1454, probably of half-timbering, and the first brick church, which was consecrated on 4 December this year by Andrzej of Bnin Opaliński, Bishop of Poznan