Joseph's Church (Danzig)
The Josephskirche ( Polish Kościół św. Józefa ) is a Roman Catholic church in the old town of Gdańsk . It is a rectorate church of the parish of the Brigittenkirche and is located on ulica Elżbietańska . It has been run by the Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary since 1947 , who also took over the neighboring former Carmelite monastery .
location
Joseph's Church is located in today's Elżbietańska Street , the former Elisabeth-Kirchgasse. Opposite your entrance is the Elisabeth Church, which gives the street its name . Seen from the Elżbietańska from next to the church, the monastery is to the left wafers . The church borders ulica Bielańska to the south and ulica Podbielańska to the east , formerly Weißmönchen-Kirchgasse and Weißmönchen-Hintergasse. Both street names are a reminder that the St. Joseph's Church was run by Carmelites, known as white monks in Gdansk, until 1840, and was therefore also called the White Monks Church .
history
Already at the end of the 14th century, the Georgenhof was a leper house on the site of today's church and monastery. Today's ulica Podbielańska , on which the Leprosenhaus was located, was then logically called St. Georgengasse , later it was renamed to Weißmönchen-Hintergasse based on the Carmelites known as White Monks in Gdansk . After the Carmelites had received the property as compensation for the loss of other areas, construction of the St. Joseph's Church and the Carmelite Monastery began in 1467 in place of the Leper House . Construction was largely completed by the end of the 15th century. Instead of the originally planned three-aisled church, only one nave was built for financial reasons, which is why today's gate, originally intended as a church portal, stands a long way in front of the church at the front of the street. In 1623 the facilities were expanded to the west. After a fire, the church was rebuilt in the Baroque style in 1663 . After the Carmelites were expelled from Gdansk in 1840, the previous monastery church was converted into a parish church .
On March 27, 1945, the church became the scene of a war crime committed by the Red Army . Apparently drunk soldiers of the Red Army, which had reached Gdansk in those days, set fire to the church, in which more than a hundred people had found refuge, and locked the doors from the outside, so that those seeking protection burned in the church. Only those who had fled to the parsonage survived the massacre because the provost Fedtke at the time managed to make a sober officer aware of the desperate situation. To commemorate this crime, the Gdańsk Memorial to the Victims of Inhuman Systems was inaugurated in 2000 as an ecumenical place of remembrance and reconciliation by Gdańsk Auxiliary Bishop Zygmunt Józef Pawłowicz and Bishop Eugeniusz Juretzko OMI.
After the end of the war, the now badly damaged church and the neighboring monastery were handed over to the Order of the Oblates of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in 1948 , who restored and leads the church until 1953. It is now a branch church of the parish of the Brigittenkirche . In 1973 the church, including the gate and monastery, was placed under monument protection.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ On the designation of the Danzig Carmelites as white monks , see JN Pawlowski, History of the Provincial Capital Danzig from the Earliest Times to the Secular Celebration of their Reunification with Prussia in 1898 , Verlag AW Kafemann, Danzig 1893, page 78.
- ↑ Gustav Köhler, History of the fortresses Danzig and Weichselmünde up to 1814 in connection with the war history of the free city of Danzig - first part up to 1734 , Verlag von Wilhelm Koebner, Breslau 1893, page 31.
- ↑ “Josefkirche in Danzig” on www.pomorskie.travel, accessed on September 18, 2015.
- ↑ List of monuments of the Pomeranian Voivodeship , accessed on September 18, 2015.
Coordinates: 54 ° 21 '14.7 " N , 18 ° 38' 49.7" E