Katedra sw. Jana Chrzciciela

Lublin Cathedral, dedicated to St John the Baptist, was built as a Jesuit church and became the city's cathedral in the 19th century. It is the largest Baroque interior in the city, and its walls and ceiling are painted with illusionistic frescoes that trick the eye into reading flat surfaces as deep architecture. The paintings are the work of Josef Mayer, court painter to Augustus III of Saxony, and were in place by the 1750s.

The trompe-l'oeil painting is the reason to come. Mayer covered the nave with fictive columns, cornices and open skies that look three-dimensional from the floor. Beyond the main church, the cathedral has an acoustic sacristy, a small room where a whisper against one wall carries clearly to the far corner. Together they make one of the most rewarding church interiors in eastern Poland.

The church was founded by the Jesuits and grew into the grandest religious building in the town. Mayer painted the illusionistic frescoes in the mid-18th century. When the Jesuit order was suppressed in 1773 the church lost its owners, and in the early 19th century, with the creation of the Lublin diocese, it was chosen as the cathedral. The acoustic sacristy dates from the 1750s and was rebuilt after wartime damage with its sound effect preserved.

Stand under the nave first and let the painted architecture resolve. Then find the acoustic sacristy, where the frescoes carry a theme of the Church prevailing over the Reformation, and test the whisper along the wall. The adjoining treasury holds liturgical objects. Times for the sacristy and treasury can be limited, so ask on arrival.

Half an hour covers the main church. Add fifteen minutes or so for the acoustic sacristy and treasury if they are open when you visit.

The cathedral stands beside the Trinitarian Tower at the edge of the Old Town, a short walk from the Krakow Gate. It is a working church, so services take priority over sightseeing and dress modestly inside. For the wider centre, see the Lublin guide.

The cathedral sits next to several other central sights:

• The Trinitarian Tower, right beside the cathedral, with the best viewpoint in the Old Town.
• The Krakow Gate, a couple of minutes away.
• The Old Town, through the gate to the market square.

It is a room off the cathedral where the shape of the walls carries sound in an unusual way, so a whisper in one corner can be heard clearly in another. It is painted with illusionistic frescoes like the main church.

Josef Mayer, a court painter working for Augustus III of Saxony, painted the illusionistic Baroque frescoes in the mid-18th century, before the building became a cathedral.