There are places, buildings and art works which are known all over the world. They are mentioned not only in tourist guides but also in directories or art books which try to reflect their beauty and glamour. When one reads about those places or regard the documented pictures, one always believes, they could probably look better and more captivating if one would have a view at oneself.

One of these special buildings is a unique chapel of the apostolic palace which was built by Pope Sixtus IV in the 15th century. Already everybody knows Michelangelo’s fresco: „The Creation of Adam“ or „The Last Judgment“? The Sistine Chapel, where some of the most famous paintings of the world were created and still can be marveled, is quite an important place of Catholicism. It is the place at which the conclave, the choice of the Pope, set up. If one visits Rome, one is aware that at this important place the tourists crowd and it is difficult to pause a moment for admiring the artistry. Hence, I am glad that all visitors to Wroclaw and the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski) the exhibition and the replicas offers the opportunity to marvel Michelangelo’s miraculous fresco paintings of the Sistine Chapel.

The organizers of the exhibition have chosen a unique place in Poland – the heart of our town and there the Gothic Collegiate Church to the Holy Cross (in 1288-1350). Besides the cathedral this church is a document of an unusual development of Wroclaw in the Middle Ages and its importance on the European map. The church was donated by Silesian Duke Henry-the just (in 1257-1290) who strove for the crown of Poland in Cracow. Unfortunately, his untimely death destroyed this strain. Today the Collegiate Church to the Holy Cross is an important place on the spiritual map of our archdiocese and the culture of Wroclaw, too.

Dear guests of Wroclaw, I extend a welcome to you on the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski). My recognition and my thanks are valid for the supporters of the exhibition „Michelangelo. Sistine Chapel”. After numerous noteworthy places known far away in this world you have decided to make stopover on the capital of Lower Silesia – Wroclaw. Thanks to your open arms who have cooperated with the organizers to realize this exhibition.

I hope that the encountering with the art of Michelangelo in the form of replicas of his frescos is also a chance to be aware the origin of the European culture and civilisation, because Europe is founded spiritually on three hills: to the Capitol, the Acropolis and Golgota. Old Greece has given us mind. Rome has given us law. Jesus Christ has brought us the order of God which is love. Let us meet on the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski) in Wroclaw faced by these miraculous these works from the Sistine Chapel which help us to pay attention to the future of our town, of our homeland, Europe and our world.

+ Józef Piotr Kupny

Archbishop Metropolitan of Wrocław

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

Wroclaw is one of those European towns whose art and culture has to tell a lot, feels responsibly for this and offers many dimensions to experience it.

We spared no efforts to present you an interesting and also unique exhibition which acquainting you art works each of us know but never experienced such close. Hence, I am glad that Wroclaw has the pleasure of hosting this special exhibition with more than 30 most important replicas from the Sistine Chapel.

The exhibition provides the possibility to experience Michelangelo’s work from such an immediate nearness to those who might never could enjoy his work in real – and also to those who already admired his creating in the original and want to experience the detailed richness and the artistry of one of the best known artists of the world from a new perspective. The replicas of Michelangelo’s frescoes which you can see in the Church of the Holy Cross on Ostrów Tumski were produced with the aid of the most advanced technologies to show you all details and colors of the best known wall paintings of the world and to be able to give an understanding.

We invite you warmly to exploit this unique opportunity which was given us in Wroclaw as a premiere in Poland.

Jacek Sutryk
Mayor of Wroclaw

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I am very pleased, that Wroclaw is allowed to present you the exhibition „Michelangelo. Sistine Chapel“ at the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski) in the collegiate church to the Holy, for the first time in Poland. There could have been no better place than Lower Silesia, or more precisely, the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski). It is not only the spiritual heart of Breslau, it is also the heart of the whole region. And collegiate church to the Holy, built in 1288-1350, is a unique church in any respect: historically, architecturally, spiritually.

The two-storey collegiate church to the Holy Cross was donated by the Silesian Duke Henry the just (in 1257-1290) and should be sign of the reconciliation with Wroclaw’s bishop Thomas II (1230-1292). This church in the Silesian version of the Gothic style is exemplary for the special constructions in this architecture period. The upper floor is the light flooded Church to the Holy Cross, while the Church of St. Bartholomew you find in the lower floor. The Apostle Bartholomew was a patron saint of the Silesian Piasts (Wroclaw’s lords). Wroclaw’s cross church become burial place and mausoleum of his founder Duke Henry up until the Second World War. Today the tomb of the founder was removed during the war and can be visited in the national museum of Wroclaw nowadays.

The exhibition dedicates to Michelangelo’s fresco paintings of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, these works you can admire in the lower Church of St. Bartholomew. The main image fields of the ceiling frescoes are to be seen in the upper Church to the Holy Cross. In 2019 you can feel the atmosphere of quite a special place of the spirituality, art culture and world culture, those of the Sistine Chapel on the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski) for some month, which is fondly called “small Vatican” by Wroclaw’s citizens,. We are grateful to be able to present to you this exhibition with original replica of these frescoes.

I would like to thank the supporters and sponsors of the exhibition for the cooperation and the organizer the Berlin-based company Yolo for the location choice. I wish us all an intellectually and spiritually enriching experience of this worldwide known art which has come to us from Vatican.

Ks. Paweł Cembrowicz

Preacher of Wroclaw Cathedral