Church of the Transfiguration

This guide to the Church of the Transfiguration in Warsaw opens with a king's heart resting in an urn near the altar, that of Jan III Sobieski, who broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 and funded this modest Capuchin church before riding into that battle. It follows his marriage to Maria Kazimiera, the hundreds of love letters between them, and her decision to keep part of him in Warsaw while his body went north to Wawel Cathedral. Every December the crypt fills with a mechanized nativity scene that has drawn children here for generations.