Collegiate Church of the Assumption in Kartuzy

Above the main entrance of Kartuzy's collegiate church an angel with a scythe swings back and forth: it is the pendulum of a clock built into the organ gallery, and the whole church is covered by a roof shaped like a coffin lid. Both carry the same message as the motto of the order that built the church: memento mori, remember that you will die. The Gothic Church of the Assumption is the most valuable monument in Kartuzy and one of the most important in Pomerania, and its chancel keeps a gilded leather wall covering found nowhere else in Poland.

History: Mary's Paradise in Kashubia

The Carthusian monastery of Domus Paradisi Mariae, Mary's Paradise, was founded in 1380 about 40 km west of Gdańsk, between Lake Klasztorne and Lake Karczemne. According to Kartuzy municipality work on the church began in 1381 on the initiative of the Gdańsk patrician Jan Thiergart, and it was consecrated on 7 October 1403 (other sources give 1383–1405 as the building dates). The Carthusians lived in seclusion, each monk in his own small house called a hermitage, and many of the 16 hermitages were funded by Gdańsk burghers. They walked to church through covered cloisters so as never to step outside.

The monastery prospered thanks to grants from the Teutonic Order and donations, and ran tar works, glassworks and charcoal kilns. After the monastery was dissolved almost all the hermitages and cloisters were pulled down. Today the church serves the parish and is the seat of the Kartuzy collegiate chapter.

What to see

• The coffin-lid roof, Baroque in date, best seen from the side of the church.
• The Gothic altarpiece of 1444 from a Gdańsk workshop, the high altar until 1639; its central part and predella now stand in the Golden Chapel.
• The Last Supper altar of black marble and white English alabaster, made in 1678 by the Gdańsk master Hans Caspar.
• Baroque choir stalls of 1643 and 1677 with images of apostles, hermits and scenes of the Passion.
• The cordovan in the chancel: gilded, embossed leather wall hangings from the 1680s.
• The prior's throne of 1677 with figures of God the Father, St Bruno and St Jerome.

Interesting facts

The cordovan was paid for by Prior Wawrzyniec Fendrich. It consisted of 60 panels at 4.5 florins each, a hefty total of 270 florins, and Kartuzy is the only church in Poland where such a covering survives in its original place. The clock on the late Renaissance organ gallery of about 1640 has a single hand. Of the former complex, one hermitage, part of the great cloister, farm buildings and the refectory survive; since 1995 the refectory has housed a contemporary art gallery.

Tripto tip

The collegiate church is at ul. Klasztorna 5. It is a working parish church, so visit outside services; before going in, walk around the building to see the roof and the only surviving hermitage. Allow 45–60 minutes for the interior and surroundings, and in summer try to catch the Kartuzy Festival of Organ and Chamber Music, whose concerts are held in the church. From the church you can walk down to Lake Klasztorne, and the Kashubian Museum awaits in the town centre. Kartuzy is a good base for exploring the Kashubian Landscape Park.