The Church of the Holy Cross (known as the Academic Church), located on the grounds of Catholic University of Lublin, was founded in the 15th century. According to legend, a merchant Henryk from Gdańsk tried to steal a part of the Holy Cross stored in the church of Dominican Order. Under the cover of the night, he wanted to take the relic out of the city but outside the city walls the oxen stopped and did not want to pull the cart further. Horrified, Henry turned back to the city, gave back the relic, and then founded a church in the place of a miraculous event - originally wooden, then rebuilt in the Renaissance style. At the end of the 17th century, the church was taken over by the Dominicans who built a monastery next to it. In the 19th century, the church, used among others as a military warehouse, gradually fell into disrepair. In a period of the Second Polish Republic, during adaptation of the entire complex to the needs of the university, the church was renovated with partial preservation of the Renaissance features of the building, while the interior took on a harsh climate of temples of the first centuries of Christianity.
