The church of St John the Baptist and John the Evangelist was built in 1586-1604 to serve the Society of Jesus, which arrived at that time in Lublin. The church's designer was one of the friars - Jan Maria Bernardoni who partly based its project on the Roman residence of the Jesuits – the Il Gesu Church. In the 18th century, Józef Meyer decorated the interior of the church with beautiful paintings depicting Biblical scenes. The Church of the Society of Jesus became a cathedral in 1805 after the Diocese of Lublin was established. After the damage caused by World War II, the cathedral has been rebuilt and we can still see it in this form today. It is worth going inside to get a closer look at the illusionistic polychromes and grand furnishings of the church. In the presbytery there is a 17th century altar made of black Lebanese pear, now in its original ebony colour, there are golden sculptures of saints in it. In the presbytery there are also two Baroque paintings, The Last Supper and The Feast of Herod . In side chapels, in addition to frescoes, we can see figures of saints, including Ignacy Loyola, and paintings.
In the side altar of the left nave, there hangs the icon of the Crying Virgin Mary. On July 3, 1949, the image cried with bloody tears that were collected and placed in one of the stones in the crown of Mary.
It is also worth visiting the Acoustic Sacristy constructed in the years 1752-1754. The curvature of the vault was shaped in such a way that sounds reflected by one of the corners go to another one. The chapel was destroyed during World War II and meticulously reconstructed afterwards, preserving its acoustic features. Nowadays, in the Acoustic Sacristy and in the neighbouring vault, valuable collections of liturgical objects are displayed. In both rooms there are Meier's illusionist frescoes depicting the triumph of faith over heresy and the rider of the Apocalypse.
In the Archcathedral there are many objects transferred to it in the 19th century from the church of St. Michael. Besides the Tribunal Cross, there is also the baptismal font from the 14th century, the epitaph tables, including Sebastian Klonowic’s table, or the monstrances.
Open to visitors are also crypts. There, Lublin bishops were buried. You can see their clothes, gravestone-portraits, objects with which the dead were buried. The entrance to the crypts is located inside the cathedral.
