The Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland, universally known as the Arka Pana — the Lord's Ark — is the most powerful monument in Nowa Huta and one of the great symbols of Polish resistance to communism. The authorities had designed the district as a city without a church; for years the residents fought for permission to build one, and when it finally came they raised the building themselves between 1967 and 1977, hauling materials and laying stones by hand.
The result is a striking piece of modernist architecture: a soaring concrete hull shaped like an ark, its walls studded with two million river pebbles gathered by parishioners, topped by a mast-like cross. Inside hangs a Christ figure and, set into the tabernacle, a fragment of rock brought back from the Moon by the Apollo 11 crew. Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków and soon to be Pope John Paul II, championed the project and consecrated the finished church. It stands a short tram ride or walk from Plac Centralny, well worth the detour.