Holy Trinity Basilica, Strzelno

For more than two hundred years nobody knew that the Baroque pillars of the basilica in Strzelno concealed Romanesque columns covered in carvings. They were discovered only in 1946 by Professor Zdzisław Kępiński — and turned out to be one of the most valuable groups of Romanesque sculpture in Europe: 36 figures of virtues and vices carved into sandstone by a medieval workshop like a stone textbook of morality.

History: a Norbertine convent

The Basilica of the Holy Trinity was built at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries as the church of a convent of Norbertine nuns, and was consecrated in 1216. It was later remodelled twice: in Gothic style, with a star vault over the nave, and in Baroque style, when it gained its twin-towered façade in the 18th century. The Romanesque walls nevertheless survive all the way round, and in many places you can see the bare Romanesque stonework. In 2018 the former Norbertine convent complex was declared a Monument of History, Poland's highest heritage designation.

The columns of virtues and vices

The church has seven Romanesque columns, but two of them, dated to the second half of the 12th century, made it famous. Each is carved with 18 figures in three tiers. The south column shows the virtues — all women with haloes, including Justice with scales, Faith with two crosses and Humility with crossed arms. Its capital shows the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan.

The north column shows the vices: Anger tearing at her own hair, Pride admiring her braid, and Perjury swearing an oath with hands placed the wrong way round. The naked figure representing Lust is considered the first depiction of a nude woman in Polish religious art. In Europe, similar carved columns survive only in the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and in St Mark's Basilica in Venice. Many figures are damaged — tradition blames the Swedes, who are said to have kept horses in the church during the 17th-century invasion.

What else to see

• St Barbara's Chapel, with a small Romanesque column decorated with plant motifs supporting one of the oldest palm vaults in Poland,
• the foundation tympanum above the outside entrance to this chapel: St Anne holding the infant Mary, with the kneeling founder Piotr Wszeborowic and a model of the church, framed by a Latin inscription,
• the Holy Cross reliquary altar with 658 relics and a Gothic crucifix from around 1361,
• a 19th-century organ by the Sauer firm of Frankfurt (Oder).

Next door stands the Rotunda of St Procopius — according to the parish, the largest Romanesque rotunda in Poland, with the country's oldest Stations of the Cross, from 1531, and a holy water stoup carved from a single block of stone. The Romanesque Museum displays former furnishings and archaeological finds.

Tripto tip

The complex can only be visited with a guide. According to the parish price list, a package covering the basilica, the rotunda and the Romanesque Museum costs PLN 30 (reduced PLN 18), and children under 7 go free. A standard tour lasts one hour; the detailed tour, which adds St Adalbert's Hill and a terrace overlooking the Norbertine gardens, takes 2 hours. You pay the guide at the Kawiarenka Norbertańska café, where tours start.

From autumn until 1 April the buildings are normally closed, and you need to book a guide by phone in advance, even for two people. At the columns, stand to one side rather than straight in front — in raking light the reliefs stand out clearly. Strzelno is on the Piast Trail, a short drive from Kruszwica and its Romanesque collegiate church.