St. Peter and Paul (Gdansk)

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St. Peter and Paul Church
Elevation of the Peter and Paul Church, before 1695.
Church panel

The Church of St. Peter and Paul is a historic parish church and one of the largest Gothic churches in Gdańsk . It is located on Zabi Kruk Street , in the suburbs of Gdansk. The church is 62 m long and 26 m wide, the tower is 41 m high.

history

With the construction of the suburb of Danzig around 1393, the Peter and Paul Church was also built. In 1424 it burned down to the walls. In 1515 the three-aisled hall church was rebuilt. In 1521 the large bell tower burned down, with the bells falling through the church vault. In 1436 a parish school was built next to the church, which was known for its high level of teaching until the 20th century. In 1456 the Bishop of Leslau founded an independent congregation here. With the introduction of the Reformation in 1557, the church became the center of the Reformed community. In 1614 the organ was used to accompany the community singing (with German songs). From 1622 to 1945 she belonged to the Calvinist religious community.

During the occupation of Danzig by the French troops from 1807 to 1813 , the church was used as an army camp and was badly damaged. The Reformed parish, the only one of its kind in the city since 1846, joined the Evangelical Church of the Older Provinces of Prussia (Old Prussian Union) in 1876 ​​while fully maintaining its confessional status and in 1923 switched from its dissolved church province of West Prussia to the Regional Synodal Association of the Free City of Danzig , a new church province of the Old Prussian Union.

When Danzig was stormed by the Red Army in 1945, the church was bombed and caught fire. The roof structures and most of the vaults and pillars collapsed. The community had perished due to the flight and displacement of its members. Reconstruction of the church began in 1976, work on the building was completed in 1985, the interior work continues to this day.

Only a few of the original interiors of the church before the destruction in World War II have been preserved, such as the medieval stone baptismal font, around 60 tombstone slabs and a collection of chandeliers from the 17th century. The baroque pulpit from 1696 was relocated in 1944 and could thus be saved from destruction.

On June 2, 2019, the roof structure of the church was destroyed by fire over an area of ​​around 200 square meters.

Interior

  • Central nave

  • Central and north aisles

  • Baroque pulpit

  • Sanctuary

Ground plan and location of the church

Detail of the site plan of Danzig from 1905
Floor plan of the Peter and Paul Church, before 1695.


Legend to the floor plan : A: entrance under the tower, BB: two entrances to the church, C: entrance to the hall, which was added long after the church was built, D: old church entrance, E: altar in the rear choir, F: Sacristy. Two brick spiral staircases.

Web links

Commons : St. Peter and Paul (Gdansk)  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Bartel Ranisch: Description of all church buildings in the city of Dantzig , Raths and Gymnasii book printers, Johann Zacharias Stollen, 1695 (p. 154, 156, 163), University and State Library Saxony-Anhalt (ULB)
  2. ↑ a b Church paper of the St. Peter and Paul Church in Danzig in German, parish St. Ap. Peter and Paul, Danzig.
  3. ↑ Peter and Paul Church , Pomorskie Travel.
  4. ↑ Eberhard Gresch, Evangelical Reformed in (East) Prussia , Dresden: Eigenverlag, 2012, revised and expanded version of the article: Eberhard Gresch, “In the focus of the history of the Reformation: Evangelical Reformed in (East) Prussia”, in : Circular letter of the Community of Protestant East Prussia , No. 1 (2011), p. 42.
  5. ↑ Fire damages historic church in Gdansk. Spiegel Online, June 2, 2019, accessed June 2, 2019.

Coordinates: 54 ° 20 ′ 43.1 ″  N , 18 ° 39 ′ 1 ″  E