St. Mary on the sand

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St. Mary on the sand

The Church of St. Mary on the Sand (Polish: Kościół Najświętszej Marii Panny na Piasku ), also known as the Sand Church, is located on a small island in the Oder in Wroclaw directly north of the old town with the address An der Sandkirche . The church is one of the oldest Gothic church buildings in Poland .

history

19th century steel engraving of the church

Romanesque basilica

Tympanum of the previous Romanesque building

The family of the governor Peter Włast made it possible to build a Romanesque basilica on the island at the end of the 12th century . The Własts were wealthy and eager to spread Christianity in Silesia . They donated several important buildings to the city of Wroclaw, including the Augustinian monastery adjoining the Sand Church , which today houses parts of the Wroclaw University Library .

The name of the Virgin Mary , the church got sand in honor of the wife of the governor, Maria Vlast. Above a passage on the south wall inside the church shows a still preserved tympanum (gable relief) from the old church next to the Madonna with the child Maria Włast as donor, who gives the Mother of God a model of the church; on the other hand, her son Swentoslaus. The distich in the arch above reads: "HAS MATRI VENIAE TIBI DO MARIA MARIAE HAS OFFERT AEDES SWENTOSLAVS MEA PROLES" (Eng. I, Maria [Włast], give this church to you, Our Lady of Mercy, and my son Swentoslaus also brings it to you ].).

Gothic hall church

Three-aisled Gothic brick building with star vaults

In the early phase of the Bohemian period , towards the beginning of the 14th century, the old Romanesque building was demolished and a larger Gothic hall church was built from brick by the builder Peschel from 1334 to 1430 , which forms the basis of the current building. Originally the church was to have two towers, but the north tower was never completed. In contrast to the gloomy exterior of the church, the large interior appears to be flooded with light. It consists of three naves , each 78 meters long , with their own choirs (without an outpatient clinic ) with a 5/8 floor plan . The six-bay star vault of the main nave and the typical jumping vaults of the aisles rest on ten tall, slender columns at a height of 24 meters . Several extensions were added in the 15th and 16th centuries, including the Antonio Coldins cross chapel from 1666, which is considered to be the oldest baroque building in Wroclaw. During the Thirty Years War , the Sand Church was looted by the Swedes in 1632 . A hundred years later, lightning destroyed the roof of the south tower a few days after the new 4,740 kilogram bell was attached to the tower. 1757, during the Seven Years' War the Prussians used the sand church as an ammunition magazine .

Destruction in World War II

During the Second World War , in 1944, Hitler declared the city of Breslau a fortress . During the subsequent Soviet siege of the now largely evacuated city, the sand church and the monastery building served as the German headquarters. As the fortress commander in Breslau, General Hermann von Niehoff , commander of the 371st Infantry Division, controlled the defensive against the advancing Red Army from here . Most of the historic buildings were destroyed during the Battle of Wroclaw , and the Sand Church was also burned down. In addition to the vaults and the roof, the entire baroque furnishings were destroyed, including paintings by the Silesian baroque painter Michael Willmann , a large organ by Johann Michael Röder and a pulpit by Franz Joseph Mangoldt .

reconstruction

In 1946 the reconstruction began, which was based on the old Gothic plans and also reconstructed the ceiling vaults in their old form. The Victory Madonna from the 16th century as a gift from the city of Mariampol from Ukraine was the first part of the new facility. Today's church furnishings come from destroyed Silesian churches and the Archdiocesan Museum. Only the donor's tympanum and the Gothic baptismal font are relics from the early days of the sand church. The Warsaw artist Teresa Reklawska made colored, modern glass windows in 1968 depicting scenes from the New Testament . In the chapel of the blind and deaf, an oversized nativity play is set up throughout the year from a wide variety of tin figures, which can be brought to life with the help of more than 80 motors. The pastor of the Sand Church, Kazimierz Blaszyck, has been working on it with blind and deaf children for over 20 years.

Personalities

  • 1821: Kuratus Neugebauer, left the parish office of the Sandkirche that year
  • 1825: Rev Haase
  • 1836: J. Demler
  • 1851–1854: Johannes Schneider Kaplan at the Sand Church (his remains have been resting here since 1969 =)
  • Walter Laßmann, pastor at the St. Josefskirche and 1945–1947 provisional pastor of the Sandkirche

Web links

Commons : St. Mary on the Sand, Wroclaw  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Latin text: see the photograph of the tympanum in this Wikipedia entry.
  2. ^ Official gazette of the government in Breslau 1821 on www.google.de. accessed on October 2, 2018.
  3. ^ Friedrich Nösselt: Breslau and its surroundings: description of everything worth knowing for locals and foreigners on www.books.google.de, Korn-Verlag, 1825; accessed on October 2, 2018.
  4. ↑ Allgemeine Zeitung Munich see under Literary Ahnezigen . Retrieved October 2, 2018.
  5. ^ Walter Laßmann: My experiences in the fortress Breslau , on www.neisseverlag.de; ISBN 978-3-86276-044-2 : Retrieved October 2, 2018.

Coordinates: 51 ° 6 ′ 52.6 ″  N , 17 ° 2 ′ 28 ″  E