Church of the Assumption and St Maternus in Lubomierz

The soaring three-storey façade of this church looks down on Lubomierz from the town's highest point. It is the heart of the former Benedictine convent where the town's history began, and one of the grandest Baroque churches in this part of Lower Silesia. Inside are painted vaults, an intricate pulpit and an organ still played today.

History: a town built around a convent

Lubomierz is first mentioned in 1278, in a charter from Duke Henry IV allowing Jutta von Liebenthal to build a church and a Benedictine convent. Under the nuns the settlement received town rights from Duke Bolko I of Świdnica as early as 1291. The first, wooden church burned in the 15th century; the Gothic church that replaced it burned in 1688.

The present church was built in 1727–1730 by Johann Jacob Scheerhofer, an architect from Legnica, reusing surviving parts of the older building. The tower, from the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, survives from the Gothic church. The convent was dissolved in 1810 during secularisation, and from 1845 to 1946 the church was cared for by Ursuline nuns. Most of its valuables vanished during and after the war – stories still circulate that some treasure remains hidden nearby.

What to see

• The façade facing east, towards the town – so the high altar is unusually at the west end. The façade itself has no towers, which sets it apart from other churches of the Bohemian-Silesian Baroque.
• The frescoes on the nave vault: the Transfiguration, the Ascension and the Glory of Christ; scenes from the life of Jesus in the aisles.
• The dome over the chancel with reliefs of the twelve apostles and four Church Fathers by Georg Wilhelm Neunhertz.
• The pulpit of 1764 with figures of the evangelists and angels; on the canopy a pelican on a globe feeds its young with its own blood.
• The organ of 1897 by Schlag und Söhne of Świdnica (their 483rd instrument) in a case of 1797.
• The high altar with a relief of the Assumption, statues of saints and glass reliquaries holding the skeletons of the martyrs Benignus and Victorius.
• The Gothic cloisters and sacristy and the Rococo Chapel of the Holy Spirit, once the nuns' enclosure, with stalls carved with the coats of arms of families that supported the convent.

Interesting facts

In the 1960s a crypt with tombs was discovered under the nave; its entrance is covered by a stone slab beneath the carpet between the front pews. Scenes of the film Zakład (1990) and the TV series Tajemnica twierdzy szyfrów (2007) were shot here. A model of the church can be seen at the Miniature Park in Kowary.

Tripto tip

The church stands on the hill south-west of the market square, a few minutes' walk from the Kargul and Pawlak Museum. The interior is easiest to see before or after Mass. Allow 30–45 minutes – look up, as the vaults are the highlight. The best photo of the whole building is from the lower lanes by the square.