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Churches & monasteries
Kraków
For years the people of Nowa Huta, a model socialist-realist town built for steelworkers, fought the communist authorities for a new church. The result of their persistence is the Ark of the Lord (Arka Pana), a boat-shaped church with a 70…
Churches & monasteries
Łęczyca
From the outside the white Baroque Bernardine church on ul. Poznańska in Łęczyca looks modest, but inside it hides one of the finest Rococo interiors in the region: illusionistic paintings by Brother Walenty Żebrowski from 1762–1763 and a…
Churches & monasteries
Międzylesie
Above the nave floats a gilded boat with a mast and sail – it is the pulpit from which sermons were preached. The Corpus Christi Church in Międzylesie is also physically linked to the neighbouring castle: the lords of the estate walked to…
Churches & monasteries
Olesno
The neo-Baroque Corpus Christi Church, with its pale, multi-storey tower, stands just off the centre of Olesno. Built in 1909–1913 on the site of a 15th-century wooden church, it is surprisingly grand: a monumental building on a Latin-cros…
Churches & monasteries
Pelplin
In the shadow of the vast cathedral it is easy to miss a small brick church with decorative stepped gables. Pelplin's Corpus Christi Church was built around 1417 and is part of the former Cistercian complex designated a Historic Monument o…
Churches & monasteries
Kluczbork
From the outside it is a severe Gothic church of brick and stone; inside it surprises with a bright white-and-gold interior in the Rococo spirit. The Church of Christ the Saviour on Gdacjusz Square is the oldest church in Kluczbork and has…
Churches & monasteries
Woźniki
In the cemetery of Woźniki, away from the market square, stands a small wooden church with a slender turret. This is where the parish's history began: a first church of St Valentine was recorded here as early as 1490, in the so-called old…
Churches & monasteries
Głogówek
In 1934 the painter Hans Breinlinger spent 30 days covering the walls of this church with four paintings, and the people of Głogówek paid him 3,000 marks in cash plus free lodging and board. The Holy Cross Church is a half-timbered buildin…
Churches & monasteries
Świerklaniec
In the northern part of the park in Świerklaniec, away from where the Donnersmarcks' "little Versailles" once stood, rises a neo-Gothic church linked by a cloister to the family mausoleum. The tomb's roof is crowned by an angel of beaten c…
Churches & monasteries
Lublin
The Dominican Basilica in Lublin – officially the Basilica of St. Stanislaus the Bishop and Martyr – is one of the oldest churches in Lublin and one of the most rewarding stops in the city's Old Town. Behind a Renaissance stepped gable lie…
Churches & monasteries
Nowy Sącz
At the end of the 18th century the Austrian authorities turned this church into a military storehouse, and the altar with its miraculous painting was simply boarded up. Today the Holy Spirit Church on Piotra Skargi Street is one of the mos…
Churches & monasteries
Ostróda
On a high escarpment above Ostróda's old town and Lake Drwęckie stands the Neo-Gothic Protestant church of 1907–1909, whose massive tower with a double cupola can be seen from afar. It was designed by Berlin architect Oskar Hossfeld, and t…
Churches & monasteries
Mikołajki
The Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Mikołajki (roughly "mee-ko-WAY-kee") is a pale, Neoclassical church with a tall yellow-brick clock tower, a short walk from the town's busy marina in the heart of the Masurian Lake District. Next door, t…
Churches & monasteries
Ozimek
Ozimek is known for the oldest cast-iron suspension bridge, but a few hundred metres away stands a second landmark tied to the Prussian ironworks and its people: a white Lutheran church designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, Prussia's most f…
Churches & monasteries
Pszczyna
On Pszczyna's Market Square, right next to the town hall, stands a church that burned down twice and came back twice, each time thanks to money from its congregation and the local princes. The Lutheran church is now a neo-Baroque building…
Churches & monasteries
Skoczów
Holy Trinity Church in Skoczów is a Neo-Gothic Lutheran church from 1863–1865, built on the Wilamowice hill above the town. Its slender tower with a pyramid spire can be seen from many parts of Skoczów, and the town's Lutheran parish, with…
Churches & monasteries
Tarnowskie Góry
The tall clock tower on the market square in Tarnowskie Góry does not belong to the town hall but to the Lutheran church. The Church of the Saviour is a neo-Romanesque church whose story goes back to the 18th century, when a Lutheran paris…
Churches & monasteries
Zduny
The outer wall of the former Protestant church in Zduny still bears marks of German gunfire from the first day of the Second World War – at the time the little town lay right on the border. The church itself is a century and a half older:…
Churches & monasteries
Kazimierz Dolny
The white bulk of the parish church closes off Kazimierz Dolny's Market Square like a stage backdrop: both sides of the square were laid out so that their lines meet at the church. The Church of St John the Baptist and St Bartholomew stand…
Churches & monasteries
Łańcut
Beneath its neo-Gothic dress from around 1900, Łańcut's parish church hides more than six centuries of history: a wooden church of St Barbara from the town's founding, eighty years as a Protestant meeting house, a Baroque rebuilding design…
Churches & monasteries
Lidzbark Warmiński
The tower of Lidzbark's parish church is 66 m high and has shaped the skyline of the former seat of the Warmian bishops for centuries. The Collegiate Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul stands on Plac Kościelny, a few minutes from t…
Churches & monasteries
Radom
The tower of Radom's parish church rises more than 57 metres and can be seen from many parts of the city, but the best stories are inside. At its 15th-century font the painter Jacek Malczewski was baptised, as was Tytus Chałubiński, the do…
Churches & monasteries
Rzeszów
Rzeszów's Fara, the parish church of St. Adalbert and St. Stanislaus, is the oldest parish in Rzeszów (roughly "ZHEH-shoof") and one of the city's key historic sights. It stands on Farny Square, a few minutes' walk from the Market Square,…
Churches & monasteries
Wielowieś
The wooden Church of St Lawrence in Zacharzowice is only about 15 m long and 6 m wide, and almost all of its structure dates from the 16th century. Tree-ring dating carried out in 2008 showed that the roof truss over the nave was set up an…