St Gotthard's Rotunda in Strzelin

Among post-war apartment blocks near the market square in Strzelin stands a small church whose round tower is one of the oldest buildings in Silesia. It is a former Romanesque stone rotunda, built in the 12th or 13th century and later turned into a bell tower so thoroughly that early researchers took it for the remains of a defensive tower. For centuries it was known as the Polnische Kirche – the Polish church – because services were held here in Polish until before the First World War.

History: from rotunda to two-aisled church

Researchers date its construction differently: to the first half of the 13th century, some even to the 12th. Originally it was a small round church – a nave 6 m across inside and about 8 m high, with a semicircular apse, built of glacial granite boulders. The type comes from Bohemia and Moravia; in Silesia only two other examples survive, in Cieszyn and in Stronia near Oleśnica. A document of indulgence from 1300 noted that the church belonged to the Polish population.

At the beginning of the 14th century the apse was pulled down and replaced by a rectangular stone nave with a two-bay vault, while the rotunda itself was raised and converted into a bell tower. In the 15th century a twin aisle was added to the south, each with its own gabled roof, and the tower was topped with an octagonal storey. From the 16th century the church served the Lutherans; around 1700 it returned to the Catholics for little more than a decade before passing back to the Protestants. After the Second World War, damaged in the fighting, it long stood unused. Nearby stood the large Church of St Michael the Archangel, patron of Strzelin, destroyed in 1945 – the rotunda survived. In 1992 it was taken over by the Exaltation of the Holy Cross parish.

What to see

• The lower part of the round tower – the former nave of the rotunda, with walls of stones laid in fairly regular courses.
• The modest stepped Romanesque portal with a semicircular tympanum on the south side, and the Romanesque nave windows.
• The apse foundations – only the lowest layer of stones survives from the original chancel.
• Two Gothic aisles from the 14th and 15th centuries, with rib vaults inside and buttresses outside.
• Inside, a statue of St Gotthard by a stained-glass window of St Michael the Archangel; the oldest, Romanesque part now houses a confessional.
• 18th-century epitaphs on the façades.

Did you know?

The church's patron, St Gotthard (960–1038), was a Bavarian monk and Bishop of Hildesheim. He ran a hostel in the Alps for pilgrims travelling to Rome – the Gotthard Pass is named after him. Very popular in the Middle Ages, he is almost forgotten in Poland today.

Tripto tip

The rotunda is a few minutes' walk from the market square in Strzelin. As an auxiliary church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross parish it has no regular visiting hours – you can see the exterior and portal at any time, and the interior during services or parish group meetings. The rotunda itself takes 15–20 minutes. Nearby, climb the town hall tower, rebuilt in 2011, with its viewing terrace, and see the House of the Dukes of Brzeg and the Strzelin Calvary by the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. The rotunda is well worth comparing with its twin on Castle Hill in Cieszyn.