The earliest mention of Gołonóg in the Cracow bishops’ estates near Siewierz comes from the year 1400; however, the beginnings of that village go back to the 13th—14th century. A local legend about a hermit is recorded in a source dated 1570.In 1675 the Cracow bishop Andrzej Trzebicki set up a parish at Gołonóg and founded a small church dedicated to the Nativity of the Virgin Mary and St Andrew. He consecrated the church three years later. The cult of a figure of St Anthony, mounted on an altar that in 1721 was still called ‘new’, probably did not start until the first two decades of the 18th century. Built on top of a hill, in accordance with the prevailing Baroque conventions, the church commanded a picturesque view of the countryside. The growing cult of St Anthony and the church’s impressive location may have played a role in the decision, taken by Bishop Andrzej Stanisław Kostka Załuski in 1753, to expand the old structure. The wooden campanile was replaced by a belfry rising from the facade. Another entry for the year 1753 mentions the Holy Trinity Brotherhood, whose members collected money to ransom Christian captives; this type of activity suggests a link with the Trinitarians from Kazimierz near Cracow.After 1815 — when the area became part of the Kingdom of Poland under Russian rule — the hilltop church at Gołonóg came to be seen as a dominant feature of a monumental town-planningcomposition. This perception of the old landmark took hold as the tide of industrialisation had begun to change the face of the region, green countryside giving way to mines and foundries. The influx of migrants not only swelled the number of parishioners but also hastened the processes of social change in the local communities. The challenges that faced Father Józef Gąsiorowski, who took over the Gołonóg parish in the 1850s, were made no easier by the increasingly hardline stance of the authorities towards the Catholic church. When he realized that the Russian officialdom was bent on frustrating all his efforts, he decided to go ahead, disregarding legal procedures and without a formal approval. The work was completed in 1858-1859 under the supervision of Julian Polcer, a chartered civil engineer highly respected for his Christian commitment in the neighbouring Dąbrowa Górnicza. When the scaffolding was down, it turned out the old church was literally replaced by a much bigger building. It took a few years before this state of affairs de facto gained formal and legal recognition. It should be stressed that Father Gąsiorowski informed the bishop’s consistory about each of his moves and acted with their consent. It wąs then that St Anthony replaced St Andrew as the patron saint of the church (the principal dedication to the Virgin Mary remained intact) — a change which reflected the growth of the local cult of St Anthony. The church was rebuilt again in 1889-1892 under the direction of Father Tadeusz Konarski. A pair of aisles was added to the nave to enlarge the space available to the congregation; another not insignificant change which occurred at that time was the rededication of the chapel of St Isidore, patron saint of peasants, to that of St Barbara, patron saint of miners.Jan Bukowski’s painting of the interior of St Anthony’s chapel in 1936 is the most important legacy of the interwar period. The German occupation (1939-1945) took a heavy toll on the inhabitants of Gołonóg and was followed by a period of Stalinist repression. Yet, in 1951 the Franciscans, who had always been interested in establishing a foothold that place, obtained official permission to take over the parish. The Franciscan convent, which exists there today, was founded in 1959.