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The Holy Trinity Church in Opole, the Franciscan Church in Opole - Zabytek.pl

The Holy Trinity Church in Opole, the Franciscan Church in Opole


church Opole

Address
Opole, Plac Wolności 2

Location
woj. opolskie, pow. Opole, gm. Opole

The Gothic Holy Trinity Church in Opole, commonly known as the Franciscan Church, is one of the most important and valuable historic buildings in Opole.

It is known mainly as the Opole Piasts’ necropolis. In the crypt of St. Anne’s Chapel, called the Piast Chapel, rest 7 princes and 5 princesses from the Piast dynasty. There are two sarcophagi with stone tombstones from the end of the 14th century, frescos, tombstone inscriptions, 22 shields of arms and a contemporary altar with images of Prince Bolesław II and his son Władysław II Opolczyk - the founder of the Marian Sanctuary at Jasna Góra in Częstochowa.

History of the structure

In the first half of the 13th century Franciscans came to Opole and founded a monastery, initially wooden and later built of stone.

The chancel of the church was completed by 1280, and the body of the nave around the middle of the 14th century. In 1307, the church (and the monastery) were consumed by a fire in the city. It was soon rebuilt, changing its form from a basilica church to a hall church, including St. Anne’s Chapel (the so-called Piast Chapel), which was mentioned in the sources in 1309. The church was consecrated in 1359 under the name of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the second half of the 15th century the chapel was covered with a stellar vault. In the 15th century, two chapels, now porches, were added to the body of the nave on the north side. At the end of the 15th century, a 5-storey tower was erected between the chancel and the nave, with the lower part quadrilateral to the height of the crowning cornice. At the beginning of the 16th century, the ground floor of the tower was converted into a burial chapel of the Prószkowski counts, where, among others, in 1508 the Starost of Opole, Jan Prószkowski, was buried. During the so-called “Swedish Deluge” the monastery housed the chancellery of the Polish king John Casimir, who in 1655 announced in Opole the so-called “Royal Proclamation” calling Poles to rise up against the Swedes.

In 1810 the Franciscan monastery was secularized and its property was taken over by the town of Opole. In 1811, the city authorities gave the church over as rent, and in 1820 as a gift to Evangelicals. The temple was in their hands until 1945, when it was handed over to the Franciscans.

Description of the structure

The Holy Trinity Church, together with the monastery adjacent to it from the south, is located within the former historical town, in the very centre, between the market square and the castle. The church is oriented, with the spatial composition of the nave body in the form of a three-nave hall with an elongated single-nave chancel, closed straight from the east. The western gable wall of the church was closed diagonally to its main axis. Adjoining the body of the nave on the north side are the chapels of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Crucifixion and Our Lady of Fatima, with a porch. On the north side, in the corner of the nave and chancel, there is a quadrilateral (in the lower part) tower, raised in 1899, now housing the chapel of Our Lady of Częstochowa. On the west side of the side nave there is a two-bay chapel of St. Maximilian and the most important - St. Anne’s chapel, called the Piast Chapel, connecting the body of the church with the monastery building. The south side also includes a sacristy next to the chancel, which was added in the 20th century.

The varied stylistics of the individual parts of the church body, combining Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque elements, shows the multi-stage process of its construction. The chancel was built from Gothic “finger” brick arranged in a Polish pattern. The wall is bonded with Gothic limestone mortar supplemented with more recent cement mortar over the centuries. The exterior walls are partially plastered (late Renaissance gables, chapel elevations, buttresses) with cement plaster. Inside, the church is plastered with limestone plaster - except for the brick fragments with polychromes uncovered during restoration (including the scene of the Crucifixion in the north-western porch). It is worth mentioning that fragments of plaster with Gothic polychromes have been preserved in the crypt under the chancel and in the chapel of St. Maximillian. Inside the church is a fresco from 1320 depicting the Crucifixion, one of the oldest preserved in Silesia.

Visitor access: the site is accessible to visitors.

Author: Joanna Banik, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 04-06-2018

Bibliography

  • Chorwat J., Księstwo opolskie i jego podziały, Rzeszów 2000.
  • Hamada A., Architektura Opola wpisana w dzieje miasta, Opole 2008.
  • Idzikowski F., Opole – dzieje miasta do 1863 roku, Opole 2002.
  • Karta ewidencyjna zabytków architektury i budownictwa, compiled by D. Stoces, Opole 2005 [in:] resources of the Voivodeship Heritage Protection Office in Opole.
  • Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne miasta Opola, Vol. 2: Katalog zabytków – Opole Śródmieście, PKZ Wrocław 1990, [in:] resources of the Voivodeship Heritage Protection Office in Opole.
  • Steinert A., Das oppelner Piastenschloss von 1532-1928, [in:] Deutsche Kulturdenkmaeler in Oberschlesien, 1934, pp. 101-114.
  • Secomska K., Freski w opolskiej kaplicy piastowskiej, RHS, XXI (1995), pp. 107-180.
  • Wernher F.B., Scenographia urbium Silesiae, ed. Nürnberg 1737-1752, tabl. X (panorama), resources of the Library of the University of Warsaw.
  • Wernher F.B., Silesia in Compendio seu Topographia das ist Praesentatio und Beschreibung des Herzogthums Schlesiens [...] Pars I, ca. 1763 [Vol. 3], resources of the Library of the University of Warsaw.
  • Volkholz F., Die Piastenburg in Oppeln im XIII. und XIV. Jahrhundert, [in:] Deutsche Kulturdenkmaeler in Oberschlesien, 1934, pp. 90-100.

Category: church

Architecture: nieznana

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_16_BK.36301, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_16_BK.31034