Church of Our Lady of Ostra Brama in Antonin

This brick church with an octagonal dome in Antonin was built as the Radziwiłł mausoleum, the family tomb of Prince Antoni, Governor of the Grand Duchy of Posen. Inside, a richly carved stone screen in a Venetian-Byzantine spirit catches the eye, and the round chancel window holds a stained-glass Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn (Ostra Brama), a reminder of the family's Lithuanian roots. Today it is a working church a few steps from the Radziwiłł hunting lodge.

History: the Governor's tomb

After the death of Prince Antoni Radziwiłł (1775–1833), his widow, Princess Louise of Prussia, sought the King of Prussia's consent to build a family mausoleum in Antonin. The foundation stone was blessed on 7 May 1835. The founder died a year later and her sons Wilhelm and Bogusław completed the work: on 27 August 1838 the chapel with its octagonal dome was consecrated, and a solemn funeral was held the next day. It was the sons who chose the modest furnishings, in keeping with the Protestant faith of their mother and sister, whose remains were laid in the crypt.

Who designed it is still debated. Some scholars point to Karl Friedrich Schinkel, architect of the nearby hunting lodge, others to his pupil Heinrich Häberlin, who supervised earlier building in Antonin; one theory holds that the octagonal nave follows Schinkel's plans and the rest is Häberlin's work. The mausoleum was extended in the early 20th century.

What to see

• The octagonal domed nave and the neo-Romanesque brick exterior with its tower.
• The stone screen between chancel and nave – four columns with openwork capitals on tall plinths, two beams and a broad arch. The column shafts are of white-grey marble, the carved beam panels of white limestone. The screen was not here yet in 1875; the art historian Barbara Dygdała-Kłosińska links its arrival to the time of Ferdinand Radziwiłł, the Governor's grandson.
• The round stained-glass window of Our Lady of Ostra Brama in the chancel, framed perfectly by the screen's arch.

Curious facts

The last owner of Antonin before the Second World War, the eccentric Michał Radziwiłł, reportedly wanted to set up a cinema in the crypt and threw out most of his ancestors' coffins. According to oral tradition, the coffins were buried by the north wall of the nave in simple earthen graves with wooden crosses. On an islet in the pond between the lodge and the road to Ostrzeszów there is also a symbolic grave of two Radziwiłł children who died in infancy.

Tripto tips

The church stands on road 447, a few minutes' walk from the hunting lodge built for Prince Antoni in 1822–1824 to Schinkel's design. The interior is easiest to see before or after a service, and the exterior can be viewed all year. Allow 1–1.5 hours for the church, the lodge and the park. Antonin is also linked to Frédéric Chopin's visits to Prince Radziwiłł, which the "Chopin in Autumn Colours" festival at the lodge commemorates.