Reliquary for the head of St Stanislaus, donated by Sophia Jagiełło. Height 24cm, diameter of the base 23cm. It was made after 1424 and was a donation of the last (the fourth) wife of King Władysław Jagiełło – Sophia of Halshany, for keeping the relic of the head of St Stanislaus. It is confirmed by two concentrically arranged inscriptions on the lid: The work is the earliest surviving reliquary of that type in Poland and has initiated a series of similar relics containers, which became typical of Polish art. Nearly forty such objects have survived in various collections.
We are all well aware that to enter this Cathedral can not be without emotion. More I say, you can not enter it without the internal tremor, without fear because it contains in it - as in almost no Cathedral of the world - the enormous size, which speaks to us in all our history, our entire past.
cardinal Karol Wojtyla