St. Mary's Church - St. Mary's Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

St. Mary’ s Church – the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, called a basilica because of its architectural solution, and a concathedral because of the temple’s rank, holds several records. It is the largest building in medieval Gdansk, the largest historic church in Poland and the largest brick temple in the world. The cornerstone was laid for it as early as 1343, and construction and subsequent expansion took more than 150 years!

As you can easily guess, if only by what the church is called, the construction was initiated by the Teutonic Knights, the Order of the Hospital of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and until 1454 they had the right to appoint pastors. This was often the cause of disputes between the burghers of Danzig and the representatives of the Order in charge of the church. The burghers did not like some of the ordinances and customs introduced from above, and which differed from practices in other churches. Throughout the century and a half of construction and expansion of the church, its status changed, a significant part of the annexed chapels were founded by various kinds of brotherhoods, which claimed the right to manage “their” parts of the temple. In the 16th century, during the Reformation, the church was gradually taken over by Lutherans. The first Protestant mass was celebrated here in 1525, and since then two types of services were held – Roman Catholic and Protestant. After 1557, Protestants made up almost the entire staff of the church, occupying all the chapels. The Roman Catholic, however, was the parish priest. Finally, in 1572, the Protestants “took over” the main altar, on which they performed rites until 1945. The Catholic parish priests kept the rectory for themselves.

As a result of the war effort, the church suffered much damage. Fire consumed the roofs, explosions caused numerous collapses and cracks in the walls. Reconstruction began in the 1950s and was not completed until the late 1970s.

Materiały pochodzą z przewodnika "Galarem Po Gdańsku"
Fot.: fotopolska.eu
City of Gdansk
By Galar in Gdańsk, City of Gdansk, Long Embankment, Motlawa, St. Mary's Church

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