It is one the examples of the region’s modest religious architecture. The chapel also has artistic values, good proportions and carefully executed detail, including stonework. 

History

The first Chapel of St. The church of St. Florian in Bystrzyca Kłodzka was built in 1646, probably it was founded by the local bath attendant and farmer. After another great fire in Bystrzyca Kłodzka in 1703, the local townspeople took up the worship of St. Florian. Solemn processions were organised on his feast day. Moreover, the foundation of the townsfolk of Bystrzyca was used to erect the present St. Florian resembles a small towerless village church in terms of its spatial layout. It was built in the Baroque style with elements of early Baroque (semicircular closure of the presbytery, frame division) and mature Baroque (gable design, highly placed openings with segmental arches, forms of the side portal, the way of shaping the nave vault). The vault of the nave was decorated with a plafond with a fresco depicting St. Florian extinguishing the fire of Bystrzyca Kłodzka. The chapel was damaged by fire in 1823. The timing is not known, but probably in 19th century, it was expanded by adding a porch in front of the façade and a formally very simple sacristy. The chapel was renovated in the 19th and 20th centuries. Probably at the turn of 19th century, decorative polychromy of vaults and the rood arch were made (in Historicist style, including elements of Baroque Revival and Rococo Revival style). After 1945 it was liquidated. In 1976, the chapel underwent renovation. including its façade. The roofing was replaced with sheet metal. In the course of these works, the drawing of the bell tower’s helmet was modified, and the originally three-bay chancel roof was transformed into a semi-conical one. In 1st half of 18th century, the house of the chapel’s guardian and hermit was built in front of the chapel. It was inhabited by tertiary monks, war invalids or lay people with various backgrounds, supporting themselves with various legacies and donations. This house still existed in the late 19th century. At the turn of the 19th century on the steep slope in front of the chapel a metropolitan park was established with scenic promenades oriented towards the city. 

Description

The east-oriented Chapel of St. Florian was erected on the edge of a plateau east of Bystrzyca Kłodzka, over a steep slope descending to the Nysa Kłodzka Valley. As a result, the chapel is spatially exposed to the view from the city. It is made of brick and its walls are plastered. It has a narrower chancel on a semicircular floor plan and the nave on a rectangular plan covered by a common roof with a hexagonal little bell with a flattened bulbous helmet with a lantern.  The chapel’s façade is single-axis with a frame division (with extreme pairs of lesenes) and crowned with a profiled cornice. Above the cornice there is a volute gable with a semicircular jerkin head and side volute tracery covered with a profiled moulding. The façades of the chancel and nave are segmented with a uniform frame division and crowned with a profiled cornice. In the southern side façade of the chapel, there is an ear-shaped stone portal with guttae, and the one-storey western porch is crowned with a profiled, extended cornice. The chancel is covered with a conch vault with lunettes, and the nave with a barrel vault with lunettes. In the centre of this vault is a plafond depicting St. Florian extinguishing the fire of Bystrzyca Kłodzka. The Baroque furnishings in the chapel were made largely by Michael Klahr the Elder. These are: the main altar with Gloria and two gates, a side altar with a copy of the painting of Our Lady of the Rosary from Brno (1732) and figures of saints placed on consoles: St. Catherine, St. Barbara, St. John of Nepomuk, St. John the Baptist, and Archangels Michael and Raphael. The second side altar of Our Lady of Sorrows was made by Michael Ignatz Klahr (1782). In front of the chapel there is a Marian column (1781) with a Baroque-Rococo pedestal and a statue of Immaculata, probably carved out by Michael Ignatz Klahr, and a crucifix dating back to 1896.

The church is open to visitors all year round; interior tours upon prior telephone appointment.

Complied by Iwona Rybka-Ceglecka, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Wrocław, 4 December 2015.

Bibliography

• Bartnik K., Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Wrocław 1992.
• Chrzanowski T., Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Kłodzko 1971.
• Prace konserwatorskie na terenie województw jeleniogórskiego, legnickiego, wałbrzyskiego, wrocławskiego w latach 1974-1978 (Conservation works in the Jeleniogórskie, Legnickie, Wałbrzyskie, and Wrocławskie Provinces in 1974-1978), Wrocław-Warsaw-Cracow-Gdańsk-Łódź 1985.
• Volkmer F., Geschichte der Stadt Habelschwerdt in der Grafschaft Glatz, Habelschwerdt 1897.
• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk (Art Monuments in Poland. Silesia), Wrocław 2006.