As a place where regional assemblies were convened in the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it also has a unique historical value related to the history of Polish statehood. Despite its destruction and barbaric use by the Germans during World War II, it has retained its original interior design and furnishings.

History of the structure

The town of Koło was founded under Magdeburg Law in 1362 by Casimir the Great. In 1409 a parish church was consecrated in the town (the earlier temple, serving from then on as the chancel of this church, was extended by a nave). In the mid- 15th century a Bernardine monastery was founded in Koło. From the 15th century until 1716 the town was the place of gathering of the general assemblies of the Wielkopolska province, which took place in the monastery refectory, while the remaining nobility gathered in the nearby flood-meadows. After the fire of 1622 and the destruction caused by the Swedish Deluge in 1655, further development of the town, based mainly on craft and trade, was halted. Despite that Koło remained the leading centre in the region, being the largest town of Konin district in the 18th century. After the loss of independence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the town came under Prussian rule, and in 1815 it was incorporated into the newly created Kingdom of Poland, which was subordinate to the Russian Empire. As in other nearby centres (e.g. Turek, Władysławów, Dobra), in the first half of the 19th century, weaving manufacture developed. In 1842, on the initiative of Józef Freudenreich, the first faience and majolica factory was established in the town. During the German occupation of Poland during World War II, the local Jewish population of about 5000 people were shot, deported or imprisoned in the Koło ghetto, and then murdered by the Germans in the nearby Nazi extermination camp in Chełmno nad Nerem (Rzuchowskie Forest) in 1941.

In 1456, the starost of Koło, Jan Hańcza of Rogów, brought the Bernardine monks of the order of St. Francis to Koło and founded a monastery for them, probably built near the already existing church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The foundation of the Gothic monastery complex was completed in 1482 through the efforts of princess Anna Sochaczewska, who after her death was buried in the crypt in front of the church’s main altar. The Bernardines from Koło received numerous privileges, such as the right to unlimited felling of wood in forests and free grinding of grain in mills, which was confirmed in 1650 in Warsaw by King Jan Kazimierz. After centuries of damage caused by the floods of the Warta River, the monastery was thoroughly rebuilt in the years 1755-1764. Newly erected in 1773, designed by architect Andrzej Benke, the monastery church was consecrated on 17 September 1788 by the Archbishop of Gniezno Józef Korytowski. For helping the insurgents and organizing patriotic manifestations during the January Uprising, the Russian Tsarist authorities announced the dissolution of the Bernardine Order in their territories. The monastery in Koło was converted into a place of detention, to which monks were transferred from the dissolved monasteries of Warsaw, Góra Kalwaria, Paradyż, Warta and Kazimierz Biskupi, and where they were to remain until their death.

During World War II, the German occupation authorities closed the monastery. The church was used as a furniture warehouse and a car repair shop, while the monastery was used as quarters for the German administration and military police. In 1940 the monks were deported to the German concentration camps in Oranienburg and then in Dachau (in 1942 the guardian Friar Wiktoryn Rudolf and Friar Władysław Gołębiewski died there). During the war, the Germans retreating from the Red Army set fire to the church, burning down the sacristy and the chancel with the main altar and the miraculous painting of Our Lady of Grace. In addition, both towers and the roof of the church were damaged. This destruction was removed after the war ended. In 1959, the polychrome of the nave and chancel vaults was restored. In the years 1990-1994 it was restored once again. In addition, in 1996 the external plasters were replaced and a drainage installation was laid.

Description of the structure

The Bernardine Monastery Complex in Koło is located in the southern part of the Old Town - an island separated by the arms of the Warta river flowing around it. The parish church of the Elevation of the Holy Cross is situated at a distance of approximately 100 metres to the north. The non-oriented, hall church of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary was built from brick on a rectangular floor plan. The south-facing rectangular chancel, as an extension of the side aisles, is adjoined by a chapel on the east, a passage to the monastery building on the west, and a sacristy in its southern part, behind the altar. The triaxial north façade, preceded by a porch with half-turn stairs, in the ground floor of which the entrance to the crypt is located, has two two-storey square towers topped with domed cupolas with lanterns. The church is covered with a gable roof, on the ridge of which, in the middle of its length, there is a large square ridge turret topped with a bulbous cupola with a lantern and a cross. The roofs of the church as well as the cupolas of the towers and the ridge turrets are covered with sheet metal. The three-bay interior of the church with side aisles separated from the main nave by pillars is covered with sail vaults in the parts of the main nave, the sacristy and the localities under the towers, as well as on the arches in the side aisles and on the choir gallery and under the choir. The chancel is covered with a cupola, while the interior of the crypt is covered with a cross vault. The vaults of the naves and the cupola ceiling of the chancel are decorated with 18th-century polychrome depicting scenes from the life of St. Francis. The predominantly Rococo interior of the church consists of the main altar, seven side altars, the pulpit with a statue of St. Francis, the choir stalls and the pipe organ casing. They are complemented by the late Renaissance epitaph plaque of Bartłomiej Wilczyński (died in 1591) and the tombstone of Ensign Stanisław Ruszkowski, as well as coffin portraits of Anna Łaszczowa, née Tuczyńska, wife of the castellan of Ląd, and Countess Rozalia Gurowska, whose heart has been walled in the main nave pillar, situated opposite the pulpit.

A monastery adjoins the church from the west, consisting of three wings enclosing a quadrilateral inner courtyard with the eastern wall of the church. The brick and plastered, two-storey building with a basement is covered with gable roofs and a hipped roof over the western wing. The walls of the southern wing are buttressed in the corners and its eastern Baroque gable is framed by pilasters. The windows of the monastery are mostly rectangular except for one pointed-arch window in the southern elevation. The monastery’s interior is organized by corridors situated on both floors from the side of the courtyard, the lower of which is covered by a cross vault. To the west of the monastery there is a monastery garden surrounded by a brick fence.

Visitor access: The church and monastery are open to visitors from the outside.

Author of the note: Tomasz Łuczak, 28.12.2017

Bibliography

• Koło – kościół pw. Nawiedzenia NMP, Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, compiled by Wojciech Ciszyński, 1997, Archive of the Voivodeship Heritage Protection Officer in Poznań - Branch in Konin.
• Wielkopolska. Słownik krajoznawczy, ed. Łęcki Włodzimierz, Poznań 2002, pp. 140-142.
• Klasztory bernardyńskie w Polsce w jej granicach historycznych, ed. Hieronim Wyczawski, Kalwaria Zebrzydowska 1985, pp. 140-146.
• Zabytkowe klasztory w Wielkopolsce, ed. M. Grzebalski, Poznań 2006, p. 126.
• Piotr Maluśkiewicz, Województwo konińskie. Szkic monograficzny, Warszawa-Poznań 1983, pp. 186-197.
• Piotr Maluśkiewicz, Ziemia konińska. Przewodnik turystyczny, Konin 2002, pp. 96-101.
• www.bernardyni.kolo.pl – accessed in December 2017