Collegium Gostomianum in Sandomierz

The plans for this college in Sandomierz were drawn in Rome, and one of the designs is still kept today in the National Library of France in Paris. The long white building on the edge of the Vistula escarpment has housed a school since 1602, making it one of the oldest secondary schools in Poland; today it is the town's No. 1 General Secondary School. You can only see it from outside, and it takes a few minutes, but behind the façade lie more than four centuries of teaching, wars and rebuilding.

History: Jesuits, fires and a prison

The college was founded by Hieronim Gostomski, Voivode of Poznań and Castellan of Sandomierz, who gave the school its name; the Bobola family also contributed to the foundation. In the late 16th century the Sandomierz region was a stronghold of Protestant and Arian communities, and a Catholic college was the Counter-Reformation's answer. The building went up between 1604 and 1615 under the Jesuit architect Father Michał Hintz. Lessons began in the first completed wing in 1610, and the first superior was Father Sebastian Bobola.

During the Swedish wars the school and the Church of St Peter in its courtyard burned down; rebuilding of the college was only completed in 1685. In 1712 a school printing press opened and by 1774 had published 167 titles, including textbooks and a natural history by Gabriel Rzączyński. After the Jesuit order was dissolved in 1773, the school became secular. The building burned again during the Napoleonic Wars, served as a military hospital in 1809–1813 and was rebuilt in 1820–1826. For several years part of the former printing house held a prison for 200 inmates, despite protests from the parents of pupils taught in the east wing.

In the second half of the 19th century the south wing and St Peter's Church, recorded since 1166, were pulled down. What survives is the oldest, eastern wing on the edge of the escarpment. After a renovation lasting more than a decade, the building has housed the secondary school since 2001, and a year later a sports hall opened in the partly reconstructed south wing.

What to see

• The façade above the escarpment – the long white block looks its best from the Vistula valley side.
• The scale of the building – it has six storeys, three of them underground, which only becomes clear from below, on the slope.
• The courtyard of the lost St Peter's Church – the church once stood in the middle of the complex; only the open space remains.
• The interiors keep their original layout, vaulting decoration and an elliptical staircase, considered the oldest structure of its kind in Poland – but they are not normally open to visitors.

Interesting facts

In the Jesuit era the teachers included theologian and linguist Bazyli Narbutt, ornithologist Gabriel Rzączyński and architect Józef Karsznicki. The school newspaper "Spójnia" has been published continuously since 1916; its patron was Aleksander Patkowski, known as the father of Polish regionalism. After 1863 the Russian authorities replaced Polish teachers with Russians, but pupils kept speaking Polish among themselves.

Tripto tip

Collegium Gostomianum is a working school, so you can only view it from the outside, free of charge. 10–15 minutes is enough; the best view is from the bottom of the escarpment, where the building towers over the slope. It stands at ul. Długosza 7, on the walk from the Market Square and Town Hall towards the cathedral and its bell tower. Leave your car in one of the car parks outside the core of the Old Town and walk. On school days, respect the students' privacy and do not enter the school grounds without permission.