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Churches & monasteries
Gdynia
On the Oksywie heights, on Płk. Stanisława Dąbka Street, stands the small church of St Michael the Archangel – the oldest surviving building in Gdynia and in the whole Tricity. Its story goes back to 1224 and a foundation by Duke Świętopeł…
Landmarks
Katowice
The oldest building in Katowice was not built in Katowice. The wooden Church of St Michael the Archangel stood in Syrynia near Wodzisław Śląski for more than four centuries, and in 1938 it was taken apart beam by beam and reassembled on Be…
Churches & monasteries
Olesno
Olesno's oldest church is nicknamed the "Church of Angels" – more than 50 depictions of angels have been counted inside. The Gothic Church of St Michael the Archangel, built after 1374, burned and was rebuilt many times, and one of its bel…
Churches & monasteries
Świebodzin
Look up inside the church and you will see a vault woven from white ribs that has long been compared to St Peter's fishing net. That is no accident: the church was originally dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. Today's parish church of St…
Churches & monasteries
Uzarzewo
In 2001, while the tower of Uzarzewo church was being repaired, workers found a sealed bottle inside the copper ball beneath the cross: a letter to future generations, written on 12 August 1868 by the village schoolteacher. That is not thi…
Churches & monasteries
Ślesin
The tall, sharply pointed red-brick tower is Ślesin's landmark – you can see it from the lakeside promenade and from the water of Lake Ślesin. The Church of St Nicholas the Bishop and the Good Shepherd was built in 1907–1910 in the Gothic…
Churches & monasteries
Otmuchów
Above the market square of Otmuchów rises the twin-towered façade of the Church of St Nicholas and St Francis Xavier, built in 1690–1693 and funded by a Bishop of Wrocław. Inside is a coherent early Baroque interior with wall paintings by…
Churches & monasteries
Byczyna
St Nicholas' Church in Byczyna looks like an ordinary Gothic parish church of a small town, but around 1300 it was one of the most unusual buildings in the region. Lower walls of unworked stone, a brick chancel with rich carved decoration…
Churches & monasteries
Chełmża
St Nicholas Church at 9 Kopernika Street, south-west of the market square, is the former parish church of Chełmża and the town's second Gothic church after the co-cathedral. The parish is recorded as early as 1248, and the brick church was…
Churches & monasteries
Chrzanów
At 5 Mickiewicza Street in Chrzanów stands the parish church of St Nicholas – a church whose Gothic chancel dates back to the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries, while the rest of the building is the result of a rebuilding in 1912–1914. I…
Churches & monasteries
Gąsawa
St. Nicholas Church in Gąsawa (pronounced "gon-SAH-vah") is a 17th-century wooden church in the Pałuki region of north-central Poland that hides one of the country's most surprising interiors. Behind its plain dark timber walls, the ceilin…
Churches & monasteries
Nowa Ruda
The brick Church of St Nicholas, with two slender turrets by the chancel and a tall tower, is the largest building in central Nowa Ruda. It is about 72 metres long and has kept a unified neo-Gothic interior. Yet there are older things here…
Churches & monasteries
Owińska
Owińska is best known for its Baroque former Cistercian convent, yet the village's oldest monument is a far humbler church. The brick St Nicholas Church was built from the first half of the 15th century until 1574, and after almost eight d…
Churches & monasteries
Szczebrzeszyn
Before you go in, look at the outer wall of the chancel: in a niche sits a stone slab with the Zamoyski coat of arms and the Latin act founding the church. The church was built in 1610–1620 in the style known as the Lublin Renaissance, and…
Churches & monasteries
Wierzenica
St. Nicholas Church in Wierzenica (say "vyeh-zheh-NEE-tsah") is the oldest church on the Trail of Wooden Churches around Zielonka Forest, a short drive from Poznań in western Poland. This log-built village church, with a shingled roof and…
Churches & monasteries
Ruda Śląska
It was meant to be dedicated to St Anthony, like its "older brother" in Rheine in Westphalia – but the director of the local steelworks, Paul Gasz, persuaded the parish to choose another patron. The Church of St Paul the Apostle in Ruda Śl…
Churches & monasteries
Wadowice
On the floor of St Peter the Apostle Church in Wadowice, red tiles trace the outline of St Peter's Square in Rome – including the spot where John Paul II was shot on 13 May 1981. The church is a votive offering of thanks for Karol Wojtyła'…
Churches & monasteries
Brzeg
Brzeg's oldest church has not been used for worship for almost five centuries. The Gothic Franciscan church, first recorded in 1285, was turned into an arsenal, then a warehouse, a fire station and a furniture shop, and in 1997 a flood bro…
Churches & monasteries
Dąbrowa
In front of the Neoclassical church in Chróścina stands something much older: a squat 15th-century bell-tower gateway, built of brown bog iron ore and brick, with a pointed archway. For centuries it has been the way into the churchyard. Th…
Churches & monasteries
Krotoszyn
On the Small Market Square in Krotoszyn stands the Baroque Church of the Apostles Peter and Paul – the former church of the Trinitarians, an order that ransomed Christian captives. The brick church was funded in the 1760s by Ludwika Potock…
Churches & monasteries
Nysa
The Church of Saints Peter and Paul on Bracka Street is considered the finest example of the Baroque in Nysa, a town once nicknamed the "Silesian Rome". Its vaults are covered in illusionistic paintings by the Scheffler brothers from 1730,…
Churches & monasteries
Reszel
Above the rooftops of Reszel, a few steps from the castle of the Prince-Bishops of Warmia, rises the brick tower of the parish church – 52 metres high and eight storeys tall. The Church of Saints Peter and Paul was almost destroyed by fire…
Churches & monasteries
Korfantów
The date 1585 is carved above the tower door of the church in Ścinawa Nyska – a reminder of the Renaissance church of which only the tower survived. The rest was rebuilt in the 18th century in Baroque style, and the whole complex stands on…
Churches & monasteries
Trzebnica
The brick tower on Drzymały Street is older than the neo-Gothic church it now belongs to. It is a remnant of a medieval church from the 15th century, while the church itself went from Lutheran place of worship to warehouse to Trzebnica's s…