St. John's Archcathedral

St. John's Archcathedral is the oldest church in Warsaw and has been the city's principal church since the 14th century. First recorded in 1339, it served from 1764 onward as the coronation site for Polish kings, with Stanislaw August Poniatowski the last crowned here. During the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 German forces destroyed it with remote-controlled Goliath mines, leaving only rubble. The postwar reconstruction adopted today's "Vistula Gothic" form with bare red brick and a steep gable, modeled on a 14th-century appearance rather than the prewar shape. The crypt holds the last dukes of Mazovia, Nobel laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz, and Poland's first president Gabriel Narutowicz. The cathedral is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Warsaw's Old Town.