St. John's Cathedral (Toruń)

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Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and John the Evangelist

The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and John the Evangelist (Polish: Bazylika katedralna Świętych Jana Chrzciciela i Jana Ewangelisty ) is the cathedral of the Diocese of Toruń in northern Poland and the most important church in the city. Together with the old town, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

history

The Johanneskirche was built as a parish church in the old town in the 13th century. In the following years it was expanded and rebuilt several times. In 1351 a fire destroyed parts of the building. Some chapels were added to the north and south aisles. In 1406 the church tower collapsed. The work was under the direction of the master builder Johann Gotland and was completed in 1433.

In 1473 Nicolaus Copernicus was baptized here.

The church has been Protestant since 1557. From 1583 to 1596, Protestants and Catholics shared it. During these years the interior was plastered and whitewashed, with the wall paintings from the 14th and 15th centuries disappearing.

The church received in 1935 by Pope Pius XI. awarded the rank of minor basilica . With the creation of the Diocese of Toruń, the basilica became its cathedral. At the beginning of the 21st century, the paintings in the presbytery and on the east wall were exposed again. They testify to the richness of the medieval decorations on the walls.

architecture

Vault of St. John's Cathedral

St. John's Cathedral is a three-aisled Gothic hall church made of brick. It is 56.2 meters long and 27.3 meters high. The tower is 52 meters high. The halls are provided with star vaults.

Chapels

  • Chapel of the Death of Mary with relief, also called Copernicus Chapel
  • Chapel of St. Stanislaus Kostka; Late Baroque altar, 1719, with painting of the Adoration of Our Lady with the Christ Child by St. Stanislaus, which Bartholomäus Strobel made in 1634

Lobbies

window

  • Stained glass , based on a medieval model by the Toruń artist Edward Kwiatkowski between 1949 and 1951; some remnants of the Gothic glazing were used.
    In the upper part of the window (i.e. in the tracery ) some of the original elements of the medieval glazing have been preserved.

Interior

  • Main altar with carved figures of the apostles Bartholomäus and Simon next to St. Wolfgang, on the painted wings the four great church fathers . 1502-06, Silesian.
  • Painting on the north wall above the entrance to the sacristy (around 1380 to 1390) depicts the Last Judgment together with the crucifixion : above, God the Father accompanied by angels of various ranks, including the Archangel Michael who defeated Satan , and who accepted the redeemed souls in heaven Peter ; below the resurrection of the dead and hell; in the middle a crucifix as a living cross and the Jesse tree growing out of the patriarch's chest ; to the side Mary, St. John, women, an ancient Roman centurion . These are allegories of the church and the synagogue, virtues and sins. Mater Misericordiae, meeting of three living and three deceased. The painting is an important work of art with a particularly large number of visual references.
  • The so-called Thorner Madonna (around 1390) is an important work of art of the soft Gothic style. The original has been lost since 1944, only a copy of the sculpture has been placed in the cathedral. After all, the console with the representation of Moses on which the sculpture stands is an original and comes from the workshop of the master of the Thorner Madonna . *
Detail from the Copernicus epitaph
  • Painted epitaph for Nicolaus Copernicus, around 1582.
  • Bronze grave slab for Mayor Johann von Soest, around 1360, imported from Flanders .

Bells

The Tuba Dei is 2.17 meters in diameter and a weight of 7,200 kilograms, the second largest bell in Poland today. It was cast in a bell foundry in Thorner in 1500.

literature

  • Bazylika katedralna Świętych Janów w Toruniu (pod red.Mariana Biskupa, oprac. Jerzy Domasłowski), Toruń, Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu, 2003, ISBN 83-87639-59-1
  • Dzieje i skarby kościoła świętojańskiego w Toruniu. Materiały z konferencji przygotowanej przez Toruński Oddział Stowarzyszenia Historyków Sztuki w X rocznicę ustanowienia diecezji toruńskiej, 22–23 marca 2002 , red. nauk. Katarzyna Kluczwajd
  • Skarby toruńskiej katedry - catalog wystawy, red. nauk. Katarzyna Kluczwajd, Toruń, Wydawnictwo Diecezji Toruńskiej, 2002, ISBN 83-916731-1-1
  • Famous organs - masterpieces by European organ builders , Ursula and Ulrich Ruge, Nikol Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 1994, ISBN 3-933203-08-2

Web links

Commons : Cathedral of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist in Toruń  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bazylika Katedralna św. Jana Chrzciciela on gcatholic.org
  2. ↑ Burkhard Kunkel: The Stralsund Young Madonna as an image of the beautiful Madonna of Thorn? - Considerations on the origin of an image of Mary from a Stralsund perspective . In: Ernst Gierlich, Matthias Müller (ed.): Terra sanctae Mariae . Bonn 2009, p. 257-278 .
  3. ↑ Karl Gotthelf Prätorius: Topographical-historical-statistical description of the city of Thorn and its area, the past and present comprehensive. Thorn 1932, pp. 87-92 ( books.google.de ).
  4. ↑ The Tuba Dei - a famous large bell in Toruń, Poland

Coordinates: 53 ° 0 ′ 33.4 "  N , 18 ° 36 ′ 22.1"  E