page_title: Temple of Divine Providence
section_title: First Polish Republic
hierarchical_section_title: Temple of Divine Providence / History / First Polish Republic
caption_attribution_description: English: Ruined chapel containing cornerstone, for Temple of Divine Providence, laid 3 May 1792 to commemorate Constitution of 3 May 1791. Work on Temple had only begun when Poland was invaded by Russian Imperial Army. Chapel is now within Warsaw University Botanical Garden.
context_page_description: The Temple of Divine Providence and Pantheon of Great Poles, in southern Warsaw's Wilanów district, is a principal Roman Catholic church in Poland. The backstory of its construction began in the 18th century. The Temple is conceived as a national and religious symbol for Poland. The complex comprises the Church of Divine Providence, the Museum of John Paul II and Primate Wyszyński, and the Pantheon of Great Poles.
  The Center of Divine Providence commemorates Poland as a country with a Roman Catholic majority and links providential events in Poland's history over the past 200 years with their putative divine inspiration: the Constitution of May 3, 1791; the 1918 rebirth of independent Poland; the 1920 "Miracle at the Vistula"; the August 1980 founding of the Solidarity movement; the next resumption of independence, in 1989; and the pastoral ministry of Stefan Wyszynski and the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. The Center is a votive church for 1,000 years of Poland's Christianity.
context_section_description: The idea of building a Temple of Divine Providence goes back to the reign of Stanisław August Poniatowski. On 5 May 1791, two days after the Four-Year Sejm had adopted the Constitution of 3 May 1791, Sejm deputies and the King resolved to erect a church "ex voto of all estates... dedicated to the highest Providence." The Temple was to express thanksgiving to "the Highest Ruler of the fate of nations" for the Constitution's adoption.
  The laying of the cornerstone in Warsaw's Ujazdów district took place on the first anniversary of the Constitution's adoption. King Stanisław August Poniatowski and his brother, the last Catholic Primate of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Archbishop Michał Jerzy Poniatowski, laid the cornerstone. 
  The King accepted the classicist design of his royal architect, Jakub Kubicki, for the Temple, which was to be built on the plan of a Greek cross. However, the Russian Imperial Army invaded Poland, making construction impossible, and three years later Poland disappeared from the map of Europe. The only survival of the planned Temple is a small ruined chapel in the Warsaw University Botanical Garden, containing the cornerstone.
caption: Ruined chapel, in Warsaw University Botanical Garden, containing cornerstone for Temple of Divine Providence, laid 3 May 1792
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