Sisters of Charity Convent, Chełmno

On the very edge of the escarpment above the Vistula valley stands a convent that has belonged in turn to Cistercian nuns, Benedictine nuns and the Sisters of Charity since the 13th century. Its brick gables and tower shape the skyline of Chełmno as seen from the river. The Church of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist holds one of the oldest pieces of sculpture in Pomerania – a tomb slab brought from Flanders.

History: seven centuries of nuns

The Cistercian convent was founded around 1266 through a grant from Bertold of Czyste and his wife Krystyna. A year later the town council gave the nuns four building plots together with a town gate. From the late 15th century the community appears as Benedictine. During the Reformation it fell into deep crisis, which ended when Magdalena Mortęska joined in 1579. Thanks to her, Chełmno became the centre of the so-called Chełmno Congregation, uniting most Benedictine convents in Poland. In the 17th century the convent owned 29 villages.

The Prussians dissolved it in 1821. The buildings passed to the Sisters of Charity, present in Chełmno since 1694. They ran a school here until the Kulturkampf in 1875 and a hospital, and in 1863 set up their provincial house and novitiate. Today the sisters run a care home here.

What to look for

• The Church of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist, built around 1280–1340 – a single nave with a large masonry nuns' gallery that divides the interior into two levels. Star vaulting covers the upper part, and cross vaults on two pillars the lower.
• The tomb slab of the burgher Arnold Lischoren, who died in 1275, brought from Flanders.
• A 14th-century figure of Christ in the tomb with movable arms, moved here from the Franciscan church.
• Mestwin's Tower in the north wing – probably the remains of an unfinished Teutonic residence from the 13th century.
• The neo-Gothic south wing with a tall tower, built in 1897–1899 along Dominikańska Street.

Did you know?

Tradition says a Pomeranian duke was imprisoned in Mestwin's Tower, which is how it got its name. The convent grounds also keep the old Merseburg Gate and a Gothic convent house. The church holds relics of Blessed Jan of Łobdowo, a Franciscan from Chełmno.

Tripto tip

The convent is in the north-west corner of the Old Town, a few minutes from the market square. It is a working convent and care home, so please keep quiet; the church is easiest to see around service times. The best view of the buildings is from the green belt below the walls and from the escarpment, especially at sunset. Nearby stands the former Franciscan Church of Saints James and Nicholas with its Gothic keystones.