Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Łódź

The Church of the Assumption towers over Kościelny Square in Łódź's Old Town – its two slender towers of red, unrendered brick are visible from afar. It is the church of the city's oldest parish, for almost five hundred years the only Catholic community in Łódź. The neo-Gothic basilica was built in 1888–1897 to a design by Konstanty Wojciechowski, and its story links factory owners of three faiths, the First World War and the tragedy of the Litzmannstadt Ghetto.

History: a church built by the whole city

The decision to build a new brick church was taken in 1886 because the wooden church could not hold the parish's 26,000 faithful – in bad weather crowds had to stand in the open churchyard. The old larch church was dismantled in 1888 and reassembled in the former cemetery at ul. Ogrodowa 22, where it still serves as St Joseph's Church. The foundation stone was blessed on 21 May 1888, with guests including Izrael Poznański, Juliusz Kunitzer, Juliusz Heinzel and Karl Scheibler II. Donors of different faiths covered almost half the cost of construction and furnishings: the Protestant Scheibler family gave – sources differ – 15,000 or 20,000 roubles, and the Jewish industrialist Izrael Poznański paid for the terracotta floor by Villeroy & Boch of Mettlach. The church was consecrated on 5 June 1897 by Bishop Kazimierz Ruszkiewicz of Warsaw.

In December 1914, during the Battle of Łódź, shells hit the church – one pierced the wall above the altar and landed on the chancel floor without exploding. On 6 December, at the request of a German officer, white flags were hung from the church, which stopped the shelling and became the symbol of the battle's end.

The church in the ghetto

From 8 February 1940 the church lay inside the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. The Germans turned it into a store for looted Jewish property and, in 1942, for the clothes of people murdered at the Chełmno nad Nerem death camp. Later it housed a feather and down sorting plant, which ghetto inmates called the "white factory". The neighbouring parish house at ul. Kościelna 8/10 became a Kripo criminal police station, known as the "red house". According to an account given to the parish priest after the war, four fugitives from the ghetto hid for a time in the church towers.

What to see

• The high altar – a Gothic-style triptych by Antoni Panasiuk with the Assumption among the apostles, modelled on Veit Stoss's altarpiece, its wings showing the 15 mysteries of the Rosary.
• Stained glass of 1891 in the chancel – St Adalbert, the Assumption and St Stanislaus.
• The Chapel of Our Lady of Łódź with the image brought from the old church and the white marble font where Stanisława Leszczyńska was baptised.
• The organ in the gallery – 37 stops in a neo-Gothic case; sources differ on its origin: brought from Vienna in 1892, or built by the Silesian workshop of Waeter and first played in 1896.
• The Stations of the Cross – limewood reliefs carved in Tyrol.
• The 1822 tombstone of Maciej Wyszyński beside the church – the only trace of the old town cemetery and the oldest stone grave monument in Łódź.

Did you know?

Since 1996 the crypt has held the remains of the Servant of God Stanisława Leszczyńska, moved here from the cemetery in Radogoszcz. In 2013 the church was added to Łódź's Lenten station churches, and since 2016 the whole complex – church, old cemetery wall and former presbytery – has been on the heritage register.

Tripto tips

This is a working parish church, so the interior is best seen outside Mass times; the parish publishes current service hours. 30–45 minutes is enough for a visit. Combine it with a walk around the Old Town and the sites linked to the history of the ghetto, and look in at the wooden St Joseph's Church at ul. Ogrodowa 22 – the old parish church that once stood on this spot.