St. Heinrich (Breslau)
The Roman Catholic parish church of St. Heinrich (Polish Kościół św. Henryka) in ul. Gliniana is a church building in Wroclaw consecrated in 1893 . The neo-Gothic church was built according to plans by the German architect Joseph Ebers as one of the first important Catholic church buildings in the German Empire after the end of the Kulturkampf . In the Second World War badly damaged, it was rebuilt in two phases.
The parish belongs to the Archdiocese of Wroclaw .
history
Due to the incorporation of numerous surrounding villages into Wroclaw from the middle of the 19th century, the number of inhabitants rose rapidly, and a new large Catholic community had developed. The construction of the church building goes back to the initiative of Bishop Heinrich Förster († 1881), who donated his entire estate for it. The foundation stone was laid on April 1, 1890, and in 1893 Cardinal Bishop Georg von Kopp consecrated the building with the patronage of Bishop Förster's patron saint, St. Heinrich .
At the end of the Second World War , it was mainly the walls of the main nave and the steeples that were destroyed. However, the parish was able to rebuild the church in the late 1940s. The towers initially received simple tent roofs.
It was not until the end of the 20th century that it was reconstructed in its original form. New copper-clad tower domes have now been put on, with a cross of the same size enthroned on each top. The project was led by the Polish scientist Maciej Malachowicz and was completed in 2003.
architecture
The neo-Gothic , two- tower basilica with a transept was made of bricks that were clinkered . A strong buttress absorbs the construction loads of the tall building. The facade with its large rosettes is in the typical French style. The building is flanked on the sides by two towers with an octagonal cross-section, between which there is the main portal and above it an imposing decorative gable . Symbolic oversized royal crowns are placed over the spiers .
The three-storey church is 50 m long, 20 m wide, the transept is 30 m wide, the vaults in the main nave are a maximum of 20 m high. The roof ridge is 30 m above street level, the tower (without peaks) is 40 meters high.
The church building has been a listed building since 1977 (number A / 1302/355).
Equipment (selection)
Inside, original elements from the 19th century have been preserved, including the pulpit and a fresco showing Mary in front of the church towers in Wrocław. The naves are spanned by a groin vault, one of the altar windows shows the church patron. The high windows are three lanes, on the narrow sides of the transept two lanes with oculi .
There is an organ on the west gallery , behind the instrument the daylight streams through a colored glass rosette.
The liturgical objects include a gilded communion chalice ( ciborium ).
Web links
- Church homepage (only Polish)
- Historical views of the Heinrichskirche on youtube.com (1:37 minutes)
Individual evidence
- ↑ History of the St. Heinrichskirche with some photos (Polish)
- ↑ The chalice can be seen on the church website, where the dates of masses are announced. Msze Święte i Nabożeństwa
Coordinates: 51 ° 5 '39.4 " N , 17 ° 2' 5.2" E