St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk

Coordinates: 54°21′00″N 18°39′12″E / 54.3499°N 18.6533°E / 54.3499; 18.6533
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
St. Mary's Church
Bazylika Mariacka (in Polish)
Tylman Gamerski (Royal Chapel)
StyleBrick Gothic
Completed1502
Spire(s)1 bell tower, 5 smaller spires
Historic Monument of Poland
Designated1994-09-08
Part ofGdańsk – city within the 17th-century fortifications
Reference no.M.P. 1994 nr 50 poz. 415[1]
Façade

St. Mary's Church (Polish: Bazylika Mariacka, German: St. Marienkirche), or formally the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is a

Munich Frauenkirche and Ulm Minster
also comprise 185,000 to 190,000 m3.

Between 1536 and 1572 St. Mary's Church was used for Catholic and Lutheran services simultaneously.

Lutheran
church in the world.

It is 105.5 metres (346 ft) long, and the

Archdiocese of Gdańsk, along with the Oliwa Cathedral
.

History

According to tradition, as early as 1243 a wooden Church of the

Swietopelk II.[4]

Interior of St. Mary's, 1635, by Bartholomäus Milwitz, also depicting the Last Judgment by Hans Memling

The foundation stone for the new brick church was placed on 25 March 1343, the feast of the Annunciation.[4] At first a six-span bay basilica with a low turret was built, erected from 1343 to 1360. Parts of the pillars and lower levels of the turret have been preserved from this building.

In 1379 the Gdańsk architect Heinrich Ungeradin and his team began construction of the present church. Their building shows some differences from St. Mary's Church in Lübeck, sometimes called the mother of all Brick Gothic churches dedicated to St. Mary in Hanseatic cities around the Baltic, and it has some details in common with Gothic brick churches in Flanders and the Netherlands. By 1447 the eastern part of the church was finished, and the tower was raised by two floors in the years 1452–1466.

From 1485 the work was continued by Hans Brandt, who supervised the erection of the main nave core. After 1496, the structure was finally finished under Heinrich Haetzl, who supervised the construction of the vaulting.

In the course of the

Włocławek's Catholic officials — a Lutheran cleric was permanently employed at St. Mary's and both Lutheran services and Catholic masses were held.[2][5]
The Lutheran congregation then began registering personal data, and the oldest surviving register is that of burials starting in 1537.

Organ inside the church

In July 1557, King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland granted Gdańsk the religious privilege of celebrating communion with both bread and wine. Thereafter the City Council ended Catholic masses in all Gdańsk churches except St. Mary's,[2] where Catholic masses continued until 1572.[2] As part of the smooth transition Lutheran pastors and services at first also continued Catholic traditions, including using precious liturgical garments, such as chasubles.[5] However Catholic traditions gradually were abandoned at St. Mary's.[5] Gdańsk's Lutheran congregation, like others in northern Europe,[6] stored the old liturgical garments, some of which survived.[5][7]

The inventories of St. Mary's reflect usage of Catholic-style accessories in Gdańsk's early Lutheran services. The inventory of 1552 still mentions a great stock of garments and embroideries.[5] The parishioners of St. Mary's formed a Lutheran congregation which - as part of Lutheran church polity - adopted a church order. A more elaborate church order (constitution) followed in 1612, the Alte kirchenordnung. The first senior pastor (Erster Pfarrer, pastor primarius) of Gdańsk's Lutheran state church was Johannes Kittelius, pastor at St. Mary's between 1566 and 1590.[2] The church officially was called Supreme Parish Church of St. Mary's (Oberpfarrkirche St. Marien), indicating its prominent position in the city.

Due to the anti-Bathory rebellion, in 1577 the Polish King

florins. But the Polish monarch also recognised Gdańsk's religious freedom and Lutheran faith.[9] As a compromise the jurisdiction over Gdańsk's Lutherans as to marital and sexual matters remained with Włocławek's Catholic officials.[2]

In 1594, the Polish royal court tribunal attempted to restore Catholic services to St. Mary's, but the City Council rejected that approach.[2] But as a compromise, since the Catholic kings of Poland had been the nominal heads of the City since the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), the Council authorised building the Baroque Catholic Royal Chapel.[2] It was erected by Tylman van Gameren (Gamerski) and completed in 1681, near St. Mary's Church, for the king's Catholic service when he visited Gdańsk. With St. Mary's pastor Constantin Schütz (1646–1712) a moderate pietist theology replaced the previously dominant Lutheran orthodoxy.[2]

St. Mary's Church around 1900 seen from the then- Jopengasse (now Piwna Street).
St. Mary's Church around 1900 seen from the then- Frauengasse (now Mariacka Street).
25 Danzig Gulden note of 1931 depicting St. Mary's Church, then the Protestant Marienkirche.
Danzig Gulden
note of 1931 depicting St. Mary's Church, then the Protestant Marienkirche.

In the course of the

Evangelical Church in Prussia in 1821, a regional Protestant church body
of united administration but no common confession, comprising mostly Lutheran, but also some Reformed and united Protestant congregations.

In 1820, during Bertling's pastorate, long forgotten chests and cabinets in the sacristy were opened and the first medieval garments and liturgical decorations were rediscovered.[5] In the 1830s more historic garments were found.[5] At that time the congregation did not grasp the richness and rarity of these findings.[11] So when Chaplain Franz Johann Joseph Bock, art historian and curator of the then Cologne Archdiocesan Museum, reviewed the discoveries he acquired a number of the best pieces from the congregation.[11] Bock showed them in an exhibition in 1853.[11] After his death some Gdańsk pieces from his personal collection were sold to London's Victoria and Albert Museum.[11] These and also later sales to private collectors included cloths and vestments made of fabrics from ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, obtained during the Crusades; as well as renaissance wares from Venice, Florence and Lucca (more than 1000 items altogether).[12]

In 1861–64 a Sexton named Hinz systematically searched chests, cabinets and other storages in chambers and rooms, also in the tower, and found many more historic liturgical garments.[5] In the 1870s and 1880s the congregation sold more than 200 incomplete pieces, but also intact altar cloths and embroideries to the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts.[11] The remaining pieces of the garment collection, the so-called Danziger Paramentenschatz (Gdańsk Parament Treasure),[13] mostly originate from the 150 years between 1350 and 1500.[14]

The congregation also sold other artifacts, such as the winged triptych by Jan van Wavere, acquired by Archduke Maximilian, now held in the Church of the Teutonic Order in Vienna, and the sculpture of the Madonna and Child by Michael of Augsburg from the main altar, sold to Count Alfons Sierakowski, now in the chapel in Waplewo Wielkie.[4] In addition, the Prussian authorities melted down gold and silver reliquaries for reuse.

Until

Regional Synodal Federation of the Free City of Danzig. In this time the presbytery (board of the congregation) discerned the value of its parament collection and prompted its cataloguing.[11] During a renovation in the 1920s more historic garments and altar cloths were found.[5] From 1930 to 1933 Walter Mannowsky, then director of the City Museum (now housed in the National Museum, Gdańsk), delivered a detailed four volume inventory of the Paramentenschatz.[15] It was then presented in the St. Barbara Chapel of St. Mary's.[11] In 1936 the Paramentenschatz was moved to a newly equipped room in the City Museum with a controlled climate, since the Barbara Chapel was too damp.[11]
The Paramentenschatz remained property of the congregation, presented on loan in the city museum (Stadtmuseum).

Beginning in the third war year 1942, major items of Gdańsk's cultural heritage were dismantled and demounted in coordination with the cultural heritage curator (Konservator). The presbytery of St. Mary's Church agreed to remove items like archive files and artworks such as altars, paintings, epitaphs, mobile furnishings to places outside the city. Meanwhile, churches in Gdańsk as elsewhere in Germany, and in German-occupied areas, saw their church bells requisitioned as non-ferrous metal for war production.[16] Bells were classified according to historical and/or artistical value and those categorised the least valuable and cast after 1860, and especially those requisitioned in occupied areas, were melted down the first.[16]

The church was severely damaged late in World War II, during the storming of Gdańsk city by the Red Army in March 1945. The wooden roof burned completely and most of the ceiling fell in. Fourteen of the large vaults collapsed. The windows were destroyed. In places the heat was so intense that some of the bricks melted, especially in the upper parts of the tower, which acted as a giant chimney.[4] All remaining bells crashed down when their bell cages collapsed in the fire. The floor of the church, containing priceless gravestone slabs, was torn apart, allegedly by Soviet soldiers attempting to loot the corpses buried underneath.[citation needed]

By the end of the Second World War many German parishioners of St. Mary's fled westwards, and also the parament treasure was evacuated to the west. In March 1945 Poland began

St. Andrew's Church, Hildesheim, and Dominicalis from 1719 can be found under the name Osanna in St. Mary's Church, Lübeck, both in Germany. Dominicalis is used by the congregation of Lutheran St. Mary's Church, and the parament treasure is on public display.[18]

Gdańsk was gradually repopulated by more Poles, and Polish authorities handed over St. Mary's Church to the Catholic diocese. Most of the artworks from the interior survived, having been evacuated for safekeeping to villages near the city. Many of these have returned to the church, but some are displayed in various museums around Poland. The diocese has sought to secure their return.

The reconstruction started shortly after the war in 1946. The roof was rebuilt in August 1947, using reinforced concrete. After the basic reconstruction was finished, the church was reconsecrated on November 17, 1955. The reconstruction and renovation of the interior is an ongoing effort.

On November 20, 1965, by

Catholic Diocese of Gdańsk.[4] Since 1925 the Oliwa Cathedral
is the cathedral of the diocese (elevated to archdiocese in 1992).

The funeral of Paweł Adamowicz, the assassinated Mayor of Gdańsk, took place at the basilica on 19 January 2019.[19]

In 2020, the 15th-century Gothic Pietas Domini altar, which was stolen by Germany during World War II, was restored to the church from Berlin.[20]

Architecture

Southern view in 2014 before additional restoration works on the facade

Exterior

St. Mary's Church is a triple-aisled hall church with a triple-aisled transept. Both the transept and the main nave are of similar width and height. Certain irregularities in the form of the northern arm of the transept are remnants of the previous church situated on the same site. In all, the building is a good example of late Gothic architecture.

The

net vaults
, while the aisles are covered by crystal vaults.

The exterior of the nave is dominated by plain

Munich Frauenkirche (1468–1494). The gables are divided by a set of brick pinnacles. All corners are accentuated by turrets crowned by metal headpieces (reconstructed after 1970). Similar turrets can be found on the town hall of Lübeck as well as on the two large Churches of Leiden and on the Ridderzaal in The Hague
.

Central southern portal

It is stabilized by strong buttresses.

The church has seven portals, one in the west under the steeple, one in the eastern façade of the choir, two on the northern and three on the southern side, six of them (all except the western) are of sandstone masonry.

Interior

Main altar, from the northern aisle

The church is decorated within with several masterpieces of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque painting. The most notable, The Last Judgement by Flemish painter Hans Memling, is currently preserved in the National Museum of Gdańsk. Other works of art were transferred to the National Museum in Warsaw in 1945. It was not until the 1990s when several of them were returned to the church. The most notable parts of internal decoration are:

Bells

There are two bells in St Mary's Church. Both of them were cast in 1970 by foundry Felczyński in Przemyśl. The larger one is called Gratia Dei, weighs 7,850 kilograms (17,310 lb), and sounds in nominal F sharp. The smaller bell is the so-called Ave Maria, weighs 2,600 kilograms (5,700 lb), and sounds in C sharp.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Church of St. Mary in Gdańsk.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Zarządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 8 września 1994 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii., M.P. z 1994 r. Nr 50, poz. 415
  2. ^
    ISBN 3-11-013898-0
    .
  3. ^ "turystyka,89,684". gdansk.pl. Retrieved 2017-12-14.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Historia Bazyliki Mariackiej w Gdańsku". www.bazylikamariacka.pl (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2010-10-31. Retrieved 2009-11-23. Official website (translated from Polish)
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 10.
  6. ^ Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 5
  7. ^ This is why these Lutheran churches have garment collections often comprising a broader range and greater number of old garments than Catholic parishes.
  8. ^ a b c d Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 3.
  9. ISBN 3-11-013898-0
    .
  10. ^ Heinrich Doering, Die deutschen Kanzelredner des achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhunderts: Nach ihrem Leben und Wirken, Neustadt an der Orla: Wagner, 1830, p. 5.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 11.
  12. ^ Wtedy to władze pruskie wywiozły z gdańskiego kościoła Marii Panny skarb, na który składały się szaty kościelne z tkanin pochodzących ze starożytnej Mezopotamii i Egiptu (!), a zdobytych w czasach wypraw krzyżowych, średniowieczne dalmatyki i kapy, renesansowe wyroby mistrzów z Wenecji, Florencji i Lukki, naczynia liturgiczne i relikwiarze, w sumie ponad tysiąc arcydzieł. Większość rozprzedano, wyroby ze złota i srebra przetopiono, część haftów... spruto, a złotej nici użyto na galony oficerskie!
    Jan Pruszyński. "Kulturkampf". www.wprost.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2009-11-21.
  13. ^ Among the pieces is a Chinese silk cloth with an embroidered blessing for al-Malik al-Nasir Nasir al-Din Muhammad ben Qalawun, an Egyptian sultan. Cf. Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 4.
  14. ^ Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 9.
  15. ^ Cf. Walter Mannowsky, Der Danziger Paramentenschatz: 4 vols., Berlin: Brandus, 1932–1933.
  16. ^
    ISBN 978-3-89809-076-6
    .
  17. ISBN 978-3-89809-076-6
    .
  18. ^ Between 1955 and 1993 the parament treasure was shown underneath the western organ loft in Lübeck's St. Mary's. Together with paraments from the collection of Lübeck's St. Mary's it is now displayed in the Paramentenkammer (parament chamber) of St. Anne's Museum for the History of Arts and Culture.
  19. ^ "Paweł Adamowicz: thousands attend Gdańsk mayor's funeral". The Guardian. 19 January 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  20. ^ "Ołtarz Pietas Domini po 78 latach wrócił do Polski". Portal Gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 19 September 2021.

External links

54°21′00″N 18°39′12″E / 54.3499°N 18.6533°E / 54.3499; 18.6533

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