Franciscan Church of St Francis in Głogówek

In 1633, during an epidemic, the authorities and townspeople of nearby Prudnik vowed that they and their descendants would forever make pilgrimages to the Loreto House in Głogówek. This faithful copy of the "Holy House" of Loreto in Italy still stands inside the Franciscan Church of St Francis, alongside a Rococo altar with sculptures by Johann Schubert, paintings by Franz Anton Sebastini and a bell that only came back to Głogówek from Germany in 2001.

History: rebuilt three times

The Franciscans arrived in Głogówek in 1264, when Duke Władysław I of Opole gave the town a plot for a church and friary. The complex was destroyed three times: in 1428 the Hussites robbed the friars and burned the buildings, and after the Reformation, in 1570, the friars left the town and for 50 years the church served Protestants. The oldest surviving part is the chancel of 1480. In 1620 Count Georg III von Oppersdorff, known as "the Great", bought back the friary estate, the Franciscans returned in 1628, and in 1636 the count paid for an extension with a tower, transept and side aisles. Fires in 1665 and 1765 – the latter destroyed 204 buildings in an hour – led to further rebuilding and the Baroque-Rococo interior seen today. In 1810 the Prussian state dissolved the monasteries; the friars only returned in 1945, and the friary was formally re-established in 1963.

The Loreto House

Georg III von Oppersdorff was a devout worshipper of the Virgin Mary. In 1610 he made a pilgrimage from Rome to Loreto, where he made sketches and took measurements, and he visited the shrine again in 1615. The chapel was completed in 1630 and consecrated on 7 December 1630; six years later a wing of the church was added which – just as in Italy – enclosed the little house. Legend says the plaster with its frescoes fell off three nights running until it remained in only nine places – and the paintings visible today were made on those surviving patches.

What to look for

• The high altar of 1751, funded by Heinrich Ferdinand von Oppersdorff, with the painting "The Ecstasy of St Francis" by Josef Lux of Opava and sculptures by Johann Schubert.
• The pulpit, crowned by Moses receiving the Ten Commandments from God the Father – a masterpiece by Schubert.
• St Anthony's Chapel (consecrated in 1651) with a wrought-iron screen full of grotesque soldiers and birds, and paintings by Sebastini.
• The plaque opposite the sacristy – behind it lie the hearts of two of Georg III's wives.
• Frescoes from the 1950s by the Kraków artists Tadeusz Brzozowski, Jarosław Sowiński and Barbara Gawdzik – modern, yet echoing the Baroque.

The Eight O'Clock Bell

In 1649 Georg III bought a bell from the town council of Ziębice for 5,651 guilders; every day at eight it rang for all those dying that day. During the Second World War it was taken to Germany, found in 1949 at a bell dump in Hamburg, spent years in Głogówek's German partner town of Fulda, and returned to St Francis's Church on 6 June 2001.

Tripto tip

The church stands in the centre of Głogówek, by the old town walls. Guided visits of the interior can be arranged in advance with the shrine's custodian (glogowek.franciszkanie.pl); otherwise the easiest way to see the interior is around Mass times. Allow 30–45 minutes, then walk to the market square to see the Marian column of 1677 – one of the oldest in Upper Silesia.