It is an example of rarely used in Gothic architecture spatial-formal solutions, aiseless, two-nave nave bodies. The current appearance of the church is partly the 1914-1915 design, made by architect Oskar Hossfeld, who specialised in ecclesiastical architecture. The church in Bystrzyca Kłodzka has outstanding artistic values.

History

The parish church in Bystrzyca Kłodzka was mentioned in 1336. In 1564 it was taken over by Protestants and in the 1620s it was regained by the Catholics. The present church has been built since the second half of the 13th century, when the two western bays of the chancel were erected. In the third part of 14th century the eastern part of the present church body was built, as well as the Marian Chapel next to the chancel and the tower next to the north-west corner of the nave, incorporated into the city fortifications. The church, destroyed by fire in 1475, was restored. In 1497 the chancel was extended from the west and the nave was vaulted. Then in 1511 the side southern aisle, the so-called women’s loft and the neighbouring porch were erected. In 1585 a gallery was built over the side aisle and the southern porch was extended. In 1676 the church interior was restored. In 1st quarter of the 18th century the front façade of the southern porch was divided by bundled pilasters of great order. In 1793, the larger, northern sacristy was erected. The church was reconstructed after numerous fires in 1753-1823. At the end of the 19th century the parish church in Bystrzyca Kłodzka still had Baroque forms, with a four-bay body and a tower covered with a tented helmet. It was rebuilt in 1914-1915 according to a design by Oskar Hossfeld (1848-1915), a disciple of the Breslau architect Karl Lüdecke. This architect was active in Berlin, at the Ministry of Public Works, where he was in charge of historical monuments conservation. He developed numerous designs of Catholic and Evangelical churches in Gothic Revival, Baroque Revival and less frequently Renaissance Revival style, as in case of parish church in Bystrzyca Kłodzka. Hossfeld extended the nave by adding three bays. He design a tower at a new place. He redeveloped the openings of the church body and the southern porch. He built the western and northern porches. He regothicised the church interior, the chancel’s façade, and the nave’s northern façade. The tower, the western porch and the façades of the southern porch were decorated in Renaissance Revival style referring to the northern Italian and native Silesian Renaissance of the 4th quarter of 16th century. In the church nave there is a two-storey wooden choir loft built on pillars, protected by a full reused balustrade in the late Baroque or Baroque Revival style. The pillars of the choir loft and the decorative polychrome of its underside were made in the spirit of folk art and the aesthetics of the early 20th century. A comprehensive renovation of the church was carried out between 1991 and 1994. In 1997, the current stained glass windows were completed (S. Strzałka).

Description

The church was built as east-oriented, stone-masonry, with factory-made bricks and plastered. The detailing is done in plasterwork and stonework. Next to the Gothic hexagonal closed presbytery there is a Gothic Marian chapel with a trilateral closure. The body of the church is partially in Gothic style, aisleless, with two naves and a regothicised façade. It was opened from the south towards the early Renaissance aisle, preceded by a Renaissance porch with Renaissance Revival façade decor. A Renaissance Revival tower, quadrilateral in the lower part and octagonal with a gallery in the upper part, covered with a triple-pitched cupola, is attached to the body and side aisles. In front of the façade with a triangular gable rises a Renaissance Revival western porch. The chancel, the adjoining chapel, the body of the nave and the southern porch with counterforts are buttressed. The decor of the chancel’s and the chapel’s southern façade (with the stone facing of the splayed windows and ashlar on the buttresses) is probably a conservator’s arrangement, perhaps based on architectural surveys. In the façade of the southern porch only one original early Renaissance portal has been preserved. The façade decorations of the body, tower, western and northern porches were made during the church reconstruction in 1914-1915. It consists of a plinth, stone, corner rustication and cornices applied interchangeably. The pointed-arch openings in the church body are filled with stone, Gothic Revival traceries. Other openings have stone frames, profiled, plain or with birdsmounths. The front façade is preceded by a western porch. In its façade are two similar, richly carved, architectural stone portals with niches with figures of Florian and St. Michael the Archangel. The western porch and the southern porch are topped with decorative gables. In the tower and in the porches there are Renaissance Revival portals (based on the Silesian Renaissance), faceted, with decorative planked doors. The transom of the tower portal is filled with a forged, Renaissance Revival/Baroque Revival lattice. The interior of the church is mainly covered with a cross-ribbed vault, in the chancel with supports of chalice capitals and floral decoration. The vaulting of the nave body is different, partly with shield-like ribs, supported on polygonal pillars faced with stone. In the southern porch there is a preserved keystone from 1511. The wooden organ loft in the nave is supported by pillars. It has full balustrades decorated with tablature. The bottom of the organ loft is covered with decorative polychrome. The church equipment consists of: Gothic Revival main altar (Schall from Wroclaw, 1845), Late Baroque side altar (18th/19th century), Gothic Revival side altar (1845), Gothic Revival pulpit (1854), organ made by Schlag und Sohne (1877) built into the Rococo organ casing (P. Zeitzius of Ząbkowice (1778), a 17th century wrought iron lattice between the presbytery and the Marian chapel, a Renaissance stone baptismal font (1577), two Baroque Revival confessionals (beginning of the 20th century), and late Baroque sculptures in the chancel - St. Francis Xavier and John Nepomucen (Michael Ignatz Klahr (1773).

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, 9 December 2015.

Bibliography

• Album der Grafschaft Glatz oder Abbildungen der Städte Kirchen Kloster und Burgen derselben vor mehr 150 Jahren, ed. Pompejus F.A., Glatz 1862.
• Bach A., Urkundliche Kirchen-Geschichte der Grafschaft Glatz, Breslau 1841.
• Bartnik K., Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Wrocław 1992.
• Berger A., Eine Übersicht über die Pfarreien und Kuratien der Grafschaft Glatz betreffend die Zeit von 1841–1946, Kirchlengen, Kreis Herford 1961.
• Kurze geschichtliche Nachrichten zum Album der Grafschaft Glatz, Glatz (1862).
• Prace konserwatorskie na terenie województwa dolnośląskiego w latach 1979-1999 (Conservation works in the Lower Silesia Voivodeship in 1979-1999), Wrocław 2005.
• Reuther H., Hoßfeld Oskar, biographical note in: Neue deutsche Biographie, Berlin 1972, Bd. 9.
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• Volkmer F., Geschichte der Stadt Habelschwerdt in der Grafschaft Glatz, Habelschwerdt 1897.
• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk (Art Monuments in Poland. Silesia), Wrocław 2006.