Grodno's post-Bernardine church is located on the right bank of the Nemunas River, on top of a high hill. There are interesting sculptures of the Crucifixion group here. They indirectly allude to the temple's name - The Discovery of the Holy Cross, which has been in continuous operation since its foundation and is now the oldest Roman Catholic church in the city.

The former Bernardine Church in Grodno
. The permanent furnishings of the Hrodna post-Bernardine church form a stylistically homogeneous set of stucco altars. They can be traced back to a testamentary bequest of a substantial sum of 20,000 florins made to the Bernardines by the ruler of the Lithuanian army, Jurgis Cerechenyevich, who died in 1788.

Sculpture of the Crucified Christ in the main altar
. The grandeur and form are distinguished by the openwork, spacious main altar, which fills the semicircular space of the presbytery enclosure and its stucco decoration of the finial flows smoothly into the vault. The dove of the Holy Spirit placed in a ring of clouds, the figure of the throning God the Father adored by four kneeling angels and the crucifix in the main field of the altar - are evocative representations of the Holy Trinity. The sculptures of the upper tier harmonise with the stucco decorating the walls at the central windows. Below, four oval medallions depict the busts of the Bernardine martyrs of Polotsk, whose prominence in the altar was intended to emphasise the importance of their martyrdom for the whole Order.

In the rectangular niche of the main field, there is a high cross covered with gilded sheet metal, with a wooden, re-painted sculpture of the Crucified Christ, probably created in the second half of the 17th century, which is the only one transferred from the older main altar. The serene figure, hanging at the shoulders, with bowed head and clearly marked ribbed arch, is an example of the representation of death in its static aspect. By the crucifix are set frozen in motion, almost life-size stucco figures of the Virgin Mary, Saint John and kneeling Saint Mary Magdalene. Meanwhile, the figures in the clearances of the side bays - St Dominic and St Francis of Assisi - complete the sculptural decoration programme.

Sculptures of the Crucifixion group
. Despite later unfortunate additions and amateur restoration, the sculptures of the Crucifixion group are an interesting example of a new approach to a traditionally established theme. This innovative approach is expressed in the courtly elegance of the figures.

Saint John is shown in an almost dancing pose, how secular is the dress of Saint Mary Magdalene with a neckline too deep for religious art. The slightly stooping figure of Our Lady of Sorrows, discreetly wiping away her tears, with her arm visited in a theatrical gesture and her shawl slightly raised above her combed hair, is reminiscent of an image of a refined lady.

It is the only one of the group to have been noticed by researchers - Professor Jan Ostrowski juxtaposed it with eight woodcarving works of 18th-century Lviv sculpture depicting the Mother of Sorrows, which make a similar gesture and use the same iconographic and compositional scheme.

Side altars and their role in the Passion rites
The side altars, identical in pairs architecturally, have a more complex form and more abundant decoration as they approach the presbytery. The four altars positioned at the closures of the naves and at the rainbow arch are enriched with sculptures of Bernardine saints and putti. The upper tiers are filled in with successive Stations of the Cross. This gives the altars a new meaning - in addition to their primary liturgical function, they have been incorporated into the ritual of the Passion.

The white stucco reliefs on the blue background are formally reminiscent of the upper storeys of the Rococo side altars of the Vilnius Dominican Church of the Holy Spirit. This makes it possible to look for the origin of this solution among the achievements of South German artistic circles and the stucco altars created there. It is not a question of similarities in form or workmanship, but of the idea of placing a white stucco decoration on a blue background in the upper tier, reminiscent of Wedgwood porcelain products.

The Grodno Way of the Cross is probably not the only one of its kind, but one could argue that the content of the Grodno Way of the Cross ranks high: the representation of the Crucifixion, which indirectly refers to the name of the church, is prominently displayed on the main altar, while the other Stations of the Cross form a narrative element of the architecture of the side altars.