Benedictine Abbey in Mogilno

In the crypt of St John's Church, four bays of vaulting rest on a single stone pillar known as "the abbot" – the oldest Romanesque groin vault of its kind in Poland. The former Benedictine Abbey in Mogilno has stood on a hill above Lake Mogilno since the mid-11th century and is one of the oldest monasteries in the country. Its cloister garth hides a well regarded as the oldest in Poland.

History: an abbey older than its charter

The medieval chronicler Jan Długosz wrote that the abbey was founded in 1065 by King Bolesław the Bold – and he is the figure shown in a painting in the nave. The charter bearing that date, however, turned out to be a 12th-century forgery, and modern historians attribute the foundation to Casimir the Restorer around the middle of the 11th century. The monks most likely came from Brauweiler near Cologne. The abbey played a major part in bringing Christianity to Pomerania and Masovia and owned vast estates.

Around the mid-13th century the church was wrecked by the troops of Duke Władysław Odonic. After a fire in the town in 1499 it was rebuilt in Gothic style and given star and crystal vaults. In the 16th and 17th centuries the archbishops of Gniezno served as abbots, and in 1690 the chapter chancellor Andrzej Łęcki seized the monastery by force and occupied it for 12 years. When this part of Poland was under Prussian rule, the authorities banned new novices in 1816 and closed the abbey in 1833. The buildings later served as a school and a hospital, and during the Second World War the Germans held British prisoners of war and Jewish women here.

What to see

• The Romanesque crypts – the western one with its vault resting on a single pillar, and the eastern one with a plain stone altar. A T-shaped crypt lies under the nave.
• St John the Apostle's Church – a three-aisled basilica with exposed Romanesque walls, late Gothic vaults and a twin-towered Baroque façade.
• The high altar from the 18th century with an early 17th-century painting of Our Lady of the Snows, and choir stalls from 1760–1770.
• A painting from 1814 by Jan Okrolniewicz of Gniezno, showing Bolesław the Bold as founder.
• The well in the cloister garth, dating from the 11th century, originally about 14 m deep and filled in around the 15th century.

Interesting facts

Together with St Leonard's Crypt at Wawel in Kraków, the western crypt is considered the best-preserved Romanesque underground room in Poland. In the 1970s archaeologists from Nicolaus Copernicus University found the grave of one of the medieval abbots beneath the church. Since 2014 Capuchin friars have lived in the monastery.

Tripto tip

The church is an active parish church, so the easiest way inside is around Mass times. According to the national heritage register entry, visits to the monastery and crypt must be arranged in advance by phone or email with the hosts – don't turn up on the off chance. Allow about an hour for the church, crypts and cloister. Mogilno lies on the Piast Trail, and together with Strzelno and Trzemeszno forms a "Romanesque triangle" – in Strzelno, look out for the rotunda of St Procopius and the carved columns of Holy Trinity Church.