Church of the Lord's Resurrection, Białystok

In the Wysoki Stoczek district of Białystok stands a church that looks Baroque but is only a little over thirty years old. The Church of the Lord's Resurrection was built in 1991–1996 as an echo of a lost church in Berezwecz, in what is now Belarus — and as a memorial to Poles killed by foreign invaders.

History: a church built from memory

The parish was founded on 24 June 1990 by Bishop Edward Kisiel, and its first parish priest and the driving force behind the building was Monsignor Tadeusz Krawczenko. The design was by architect Michał Bałasz. The model was the former Basilian church of Saints Peter and Paul in Berezwecz (once part of the Wilno/Vilnius region), one of the finest examples of the so-called Vilnius Baroque, which was blown up by the Soviet authorities. The Białystok church is not a copy, though: the multiple pilasters on the lower storey of the towers are missing, for instance, and niches and windows have swapped places.

The link to Berezwecz is also personal. The church commemorates three priests of the Vilnius archdiocese — Władysław Maćkowiak, Stanisław Pyrtek and Mieczysław Bohatkiewicz — shot by the Germans on 4 March 1942 and beatified by John Paul II in 1999. In 2019 the parish blessed medallions in their honour.

What to see

The church is a three-aisled neo-Baroque basilica with two towers, an apse and a Holy Sepulchre chapel, with a second, lower church beneath it. It is 54.25 m long (including the terrace and entrance steps) and 50 m high with the towers, and holds about 1,500 people at major services.

• The Gloria Victis Sanctuary beneath the entrance terrace, dedicated to the defenders of Białystok in September 1939,
• sculptures by Jerzy Grygorczuk and wall paintings by Jerzy Pasternak of Kraków, created from 1997 onwards — the figures include the Evangelists, John Paul II and Cardinal Józef Glemp,
• an organ built in 1961 by the Swedish organ builder Nils Hammarberg, brought from Sweden in 2022 and installed in 2023.

Tripto tip

This is a working parish church at ul. ks. abp. Romualda Jałbrzykowskiego 5, so it is best visited outside Mass times. Allow about 30–45 minutes for the façade, the upper church and the sanctuary under the terrace. Look at the façade from across the street — only from a distance can you see how the two towers and the curved central projection imitate Vilnius Baroque.

Do not confuse it with the Orthodox Church of the Resurrection at ul. Władysława Sikorskiego 9, which is a completely different building. The parish website offers a virtual tour, which is useful if you find the doors closed.