Saint Nicholas church in Bydgoszcz-Fordon

About

Saint Nicholas Church is a church located in Bydgoszcz district of Fordon. It has been several times reconstructed in its existence: the current edifice, designed by Stefan Cybichowski, dates back to the late 1920s. The church is located on the northern side of the market square of the Old Fordon, in the eastern end of Bydgoszcz territory, approximately 400 metres (1,300 ft) from the Vistula river. The edifice has been registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Heritage list on 20 October 1994.

St. Nicholas' Church is the oldest religious building in the district of Fordon, despite having undergone many rehabilitations.

The inhabitants of the then town of Fordon used to go for services to the Church of St. Mary Magdalene positioned on the hillfort ( Wyszogród ) on the bank of the Vistula river (2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of St. Nicholas' Church). At that time, St. Mary Magdalene was the oldest parish church in the area (established in the 12th century).

The stronghold of Wyszogród was razed in 1330 in the wake of the Polish–Teutonic War, which forced the relocation of the settlement to the east, where present-day Fordon seats.

The first wooden church was built in 1424, when the town of Fordon was established for the second time by Władysław II Jagiełło. In the 1530s, the center of parish life moved definitively from forsaken Wyszogród to Fordon: this decision condemned St. Mary Magdalene church to a gradual abandonment in the 15th century.

In 1435, a first priest had been established in Fordon: the parish then included the town itself and the neighbouring villages of Łoskoń, Pałcz, Wyszogród, Siersko (all incorporated in today's territory of Bydgoszcz), Jarużyn and Strzelce Dolne. As a matter of fact, the current parish of St. Nicholas is a continuation of the medieval Wyszogród parish.

The exact date of the erection of the first church in Fordon is unknown, but the patron saint was already Saint Nicholas. Inside this wooden church were three altars, the main one featured a statue of the Transfiguration of Jesus. The parish priest was usually assisted by two vicars. The first church operated until the end of the 16th century.

In 1598, Baltazar Miaskowski, the Suffragan bishop of Włocławek also acting as the parish priest of Fordon, ordered the construction of a brick church dedicated to Saint Nicholas; it was completed in the first half of the 17th century. The Gothic style building displayed a single nave without a steeple. By and large, this church survived under this form with minor changes until the beginning of 1927. It was erected outside Fordon dense downtown, on a square where people used to wait the ferry across the Vistula river.

In 1632, members of Łukasz Wybranowski's family, from the Poraj nobility, were buried in the crypt beneath the chancel. In 1691, a new building was erected after a fire, differing from the previous one by the addition of a northern chapel dedicated to Saint Anne. During the first half of the 18th century, the church was thoroughly renovated, with the inclusion, among other things, of a brick porch and a tower topped by a ridge turret.

After the completion of these works, the edifice had five altars :

- the main one dedicated to the Resurrection of the Lord ;

- side altars devoted the Annunciation, Saint Barbara and Saint Joseph. In front of the church, a column with the figure of Saint John Nepomucene was erected. Furthermore, a parish school and a shelter for the poor were also set up at that time. From 1765, the parish church was the seat of the Fordon deanery (Włocławek diocese ). In 1824, the parish was subordinated to the diocese of Chełmno which seated in Pelplin. In Fordon, in the pre-partition era, there were three religious brotherhoods, devoted to Saint Anne, Saint Barbara and Saint Joseph.

During the Prussian Partition years (1772–1918), due to the difficult financial situation of the Polish community in Fordon, the parish church was quite neglected. Few investments were realized, late in the 19th century:

- a small chapel added to the northern wall of the church;

After Poland regained independence in 1920, Fordon saw many population changes, leading to a Catholic faith uniformity among the inhabitants. On the one hand, dwindling Evangelical and Jewish communities still possessed large religious buildings (Protestant church of Saint John the Apostle and Fordon synagogue), on the other hand, local Catholics were dissatisfied with the inadequate 17th-century religious building, too small for their needs. As a consequence, decision was made in 1923 to expand the church, while Father Bolesław Piechowski (1885 in Osówka-1942 in Dachau ) was parish administrator. The design of the temple was prepared the same year by Stefan Cybichowski : the architect from Poznań had already realized many sacred buildings in Bydgoszcz, in Greater Poland and in Pomerania. He planned to keep only the walls of the original church and enlarge it in a Neo-baroque single-nave, three-bay edifice with a tower topped by a tented roof.

Works started began in 1926, with the demolition of the nave and chapel of the old church. The construction of the new designed elements was carried out between 1927 and 1928. Thanks to the renovation, the church was extended northward by an additional bay, hence increasing the nave's length by 8 metres (26 ft) and enlarging the openings to bring more light inside the temple. The church tower was erected in 1929: the three suspended bells came from the demolished wooden tower. The final works continued through the early 1930s with the delivering of the church furniture and the laying of a layer of plaster merging the ancient and the new parts of the edifice.

The expansion of the church radically transformed the building's shape into a majestic, neo-Baroque structure dominating the old Fordon.

In September 1939, the church was damaged by bombing and was subsequently closed by the German occupation authorities until January 1940. On 2 October 1939, a public execution took place on the market square, in front of the wall of the parish church: among the eight victims were Wacław Wawrzyniak, the Mayor of Fordon, Fathers Henryk Antoni Szuman and Herbert Raszkowski.

After the war, despite the difficulties, renovations and minor investments resumed:

- a new altar to Saint Barbara unveiled;