Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa, Lubin

Lubin's oldest church took more than a century and a half to build and survived the war only as a shell. The Gothic Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa stands right by the old town walls, and inside you will find a Renaissance pulpit, star vaulting and a Baroque organ that plays again after years of silence. The finest altarpieces made for this church are now in Wrocław.

History: building interrupted by wars

Construction ran from the second half of the 14th century to the early 16th century. The oldest part dates from 1352, the side aisles were added in 1446–1465 and work continued until 1511. Until 1945 it was a Lutheran church. It was badly damaged at the end of the Second World War and rebuilt in 1959–1963. Today it is a parish run by the Salesians.

The church is built of brick as a three-aisled hall with an extended left aisle. Star vaulting covers the nave, rib vaults the chancel and side aisles, and net vaulting the north chapel.

What to look for

• The chancel keystone with the Piast eagle, a reminder that Lubin was ruled by the Silesian Piast dukes.
• The late Renaissance pulpit of 1623 with figures of the apostles and evangelists, angels and Christ with his hand raised.
• The 18th-century Baroque high altar, brought after the war from the church in Legnickie Pole, with an image of Our Lady of Częstochowa and a pelican feeding its young.
• The stone sacrament house to the left of the altar, once used to keep the consecrated host.
• The stalls with small paintings – on one bench to the right of the entrance you can make out a lion at the foot of a tower and crossed shovels.
• St Barbara's Chapel in the north aisle, with a stained-glass window of the miners' patron saint and Lubin's mining coat of arms.

Did you know?

The late Gothic five-panel altarpiece of the Dormition of the Virgin from 1522, by an artist known as the Master of the Lubin Altarpieces, was moved in 1951 to the war-damaged Wrocław Cathedral and served as its high altar until 2019. It now stands in Wrocław's Church of the Holy Cross. The triptych of St Severinus from 1523 belongs to the National Museum in Wrocław.

The organ was built in 1783–1785 by Martin Benjamin Liebeherr of Góra. It was rebuilt several times, its tin pipes were requisitioned in the First World War, and in 1958 it was due to be taken away until local railway workers stopped it. In 2020–2022 it was reconstructed using the surviving Baroque parts and now has 30 stops.

Next to the church stands a free-standing brick bell tower from around 1500, also a listed monument.

Tripto tip

The church is on Kołłątaja Street, a few minutes' walk from the market square. The interior is easiest to see around service times, and 20–30 minutes is enough for the details. The best view of the church together with the bell tower is from the green area by the walls. Nearby, visit Castle Hill with the former castle chapel and the town hall with the Historical Museum.