Poor Clares' Church

About

The Church of the Poor Clares dedicated to Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (initially dedicated to the Holy Spirit, St. Adalbert, St.Clare and St. Barbara) is an historical church in Gdańska Street, Bydgoszcz, Poland.

The church stands in a prominent location at the junction of the Gdańska Street, the Mostowa Street, Jagiellońska street and Focha Street in downtown Bydgoszcz.

The origins of the church are associated with the arrival in 1615 of the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare in Bydgoszcz. On the place chosen by the Poor Clares stood a hospital church ( Kościół stary Św. Ducha w Bydgoszczy [ pl ] ) made of oak, dedicated to the Holy Spirit and erected on citizens donations in 1448. The decision to build a brick church on the site was made in 1522, but the actual work didn't start until 1582.

The construction of the new church used the superstructure of the hospital church standing here. Building the walls took approximately 8 years (until 1590), the interiors were completed in 1602. From 1602 to 1618, the construction was put on hold. It was only in 1615, after the establishment of the Convent of the Poor Clares in Bydgoszcz and a donation by the city council in 1616 of a land on the outskirts of Gdansk, that things really started. First were constructed the nave, then the former Holy Spirit's church became the base of the new church's choir. As a result, the new entrance of the church, much larger than the former one, was an ogival arch, joining the choir to the nave.

Over the years, the church has been enlarged according to the needs of the convent: hence the superstructure of the sacristy in the choir. In 1636, an altar funded by Anna Modlibogowa, from Kruszyn, was installed. The consecration of the enlarged church of the Holy Spirit took place on 21 September 1645, the ceremony was chaired by suffragan bishop Piotr Mieszkowski from Włocławek, assisted by the abbot of the Cistercian abbey of Koronowo. New patrons were then added, St. Wojciech, St. Clare and Saint Barbara. In addition, inside the altar were sealed relics of:

- Rufin and Perpetua of Carthage ( Christian martyrs ). In 1646, the church was adorned in the priests Chapel with a rich, Renaissance attic and a crypt for nuns, both offered by the mayor of Bydgoszcz, Wojciech Łochowski; this chapel still exists today. New elements in the interior have been put inside: in 1651, a grid iron separating the chancel from the nave, and in 1661 a tombstone plaque of Sophia Smoszewska -founder of sisters' monastery in Bydgoszcz.

The monastery and its church had at this time a strategic location, on the road from the Carmelite monastery (now gone) in the North continuing to the bridge leading to the Old City of Bydgoszcz. This fact explained that around 1740, a multi storey tower topped with a baroque spire has been erected in the south-west corner of the nave. Slits on the lower levels were adjusted to allow the use of firearms.

In 1730, funds donated by Helen Zkoraczewską Złotnicka helped to rebuild all the windows in the church, and in 1746 a porch with 2 entrances was added (no traces today).

In a detailed visit made in 1760, Livonian bishop Antoni Kazimierz Ostrowski reported that the church was all in brick and covered with Polish tiles. Adjacent were two sacristies for priests and sisters, a porch church and a tower covered with a dome. On the tower were suspended two silver bells and another in the flèche. Inside, there were two galleries and the nave was covered with decorated, polychrome wooden ceiling, which can are still be admired today.

In the chancel was a large, gilded altar with two paintings: the coronation of Virgin Mary at the bottom and St. Francis of Assisi at the top. Besides the main one, there were seven side altars dedicated to:

- Saint Ursula - altar from 1736. This was associated with the St. Ursula brotherhood, which in 1751 got permission to celebrate prayers, on certain days of the year, giving indulgences for the deliverance of souls from purgatory,

- The Holy Spirit - the original patron of the temple,

- Holy Guardian Angels - they were associated with the church brotherhood,

- St. Anthony. The church had a large gallery supported by vaults, on the walls were 21 windows and 34 images. The chancel had a floor in flagstones, and the nave in bricks.

At the high altar are two tombs, Sophia Smoszewska's and Rozdrażewskiej's (her niece). In the crypt under Catherine of Siena 's altar is the tomb of monastery's abbess and below the priests sacristy are tombs of the other nuns.

Items observed included: church bells, missals, books, monstrance, chalices, cruets, crosses, candlesticks, lamps, dresses, votives, chasubles, covers, albs, surplices and belts.

In 1835, with the secularization of both monastery and church, Poor Clares sisters were resettled to Gniezno. The buildings was transferred to the hands of the city, and by decision of Eduard Heinrich von Flottwell, governor of Grand Duchy of Posen, church worship was to be abandoned and the interior to be used for other purposes.

Interior objects were dispersed among other churches:

- Main altar was transferred to a church in Sypniewo ;

- Gate iron grille was moved to Starofarny Cemetery in Bydgoszcz, then moved back in the late 1970s;