History

A fragment of the wall at the clergy house of the church of St. Jacob – the Parish Church of Piotrków – is to a large extent reconstructed. The existing remnants of this wall from the 14th century can be found in the basement of the clergy house. During its construction in 1754, the southern, 40-meter section of the walls and the 10-meter eastern section were integrated with the clergy house. Due to the fact that the wall was in a bad technical condition, it was coated with plasterwork. At the base, the coating was about 100 cm thick and at the height of about 4 metres - 20 cm.

The wall was built in stages, starting from the beginning of the 14th century. The face of the wall was replaced in the 17th century, probably as part of repairs carried out during the Swedish wars. Later, changes in the masonry were made repeatedly and only a 16th century wall with bricks laid in a monk bond was preserved. The crenelated battlement was probably built in the 1940s. The probable height of this fragment of the wall was nine metres. In 1977, the eastern part of the wall (in the immediate vicinity of the monastery) collapsed. A part of the buttress of the retaining wall leaned towards the monastery garden. The conservation of the wall - drainage works, reconstruction a fragment of the face of the wall - was carried out in 1989.

The western city wall was built at the end of the 14th century when the defensive fortifications were extended by the incorporation of the so-called New Town (currently Rycerska Street) within the boundaries of the town. The Sieradzka Gate was located within those walls. In 1627, the construction of a church and a convent of the Dominican Sisters began, funded by Katarzyna Rokszyc Warszycka, a chamberlain of Sieradz. In the second half of the 17th century, the main building of the monastery was expanded by addition of a vaulted passage between the monastery and the city wall. It was also heightened by one storey. In the 1630s, the corner buttress and the strongly cracked walls of the Sieradz Gate were reinforced and underpinned. The crenelated battlement was walled up and transformed into shooting windows. In 1767, the wall was provided with buttresses. At the end of the 19th century, it was plastered to form a single wall integrated with the monastery buildings. The lower part was structured as a plinth. Above, the wall is covered with pseudo-rusticated plasterwork in a strip pattern. It was highlighted by a cordon cornice. In the upper part, there were 10 window openings in lavishly decorated frames.

In the 1950s, the walls were subjected to preliminary research. The conservation of the walls was completed in 2015.

Description

A fragment of the city wall can be found along the eastern boundary of the Old Town, to the south-east of the Market Square, within the complex of the Parish Church of St. Jacob, delimited by the following streets: Garncarska, Krakowskie Przedmieście, Starowarszawska and Zamurowa. At the intersection of Garncarska and Krakowskie Przedmieście Streets. The part of the wall facing Krakowskie Przedmieście is adjoined by the fence of the clergy house.

The wall has a height of 1.6 and is made of fieldstones laid with lime mortar. Its top part, 1.2 m tall, is made from bricks laid with lime mortar. The bricks are arranged in nine layers, with dimensions of 18x14x9.6, laid in the Polish pattern. The face of the brick part is set back approx. 10 cm in relation to the stone part. Inside, the wall is filled with stones and bricks bonded with lime mortar. An approximately 15 m section of the western elevation is reinforced with a brick lining coated with cement plaster.

A fragment of the walls constitutes the southern boundary of the Old Town, at the intersection of Łazienna Mikra and Pijarska streets. From the north, it delimits the Independence Square, from the east it encloses the property of the Jesuit Fathers. On the edge of the wall, on the west side, there are stairs connecting Łazienna Mokra Street with the Independence Square. The wall was built from stones and bricks laid with lime mortar, using the “opus emplectum” technique – the face is made of brick and inside the wall is filled with stones, bricks and clay, bonded with lime mortar. The upper part of the walls – crenelated battlement, approx. 23.50 m long, made of ceramic brick laid with lime mortar, bricks with dimensions 27x13x6.5 – 1940s. The crown of the crenelated battlement is covered with a layer of bricks in a roller arrangement. The face of the wall was made using the monk bond. The foundation wall, from the south with a low offset of approximately 10 cm, is made from glacial erratics bonded with lime mortar. The foundations have a depth of approximately 70-80 cm. The western side of the wall has the length of approximately 13 m and the height of approximately 2.15. It is made of stone with an offset of 30-40 cm. There are stairs at the western edge of the wall.

The western part of the city walls constitutes the eastern boundary of Kościuszko Square, and from the west it delimits the complex of church buildings and of the former Dominican convent. On the north side of the wall, there is the building of the so-called girls’ grammar-school, from the end of the 19th century, linked with the monastery by means of a connector. From the south, the wall is adjoined by a two-storey corner townhouse at No. 5 Rycerska Street / No. 5 Sieradzka Street / No. 6 Kościuszki Street. The building of the former Dominican convent, constituting the western wing of the complex, is directly adjacent to the wall.

From the pavement level to the height of 5.20 m, the face of the wall is made of field stone bonded with lime mortar. At the height of between 5.2 m and 8.5 m, the wall is made of brick with dimensions: 28 cm x 14 cm x 9.8 cm, bonded with lime mortar. The brick part was laid in the Polish pattern. The section at the height of between 8.5 m and 9 m, was added in the 19th century using bricks produced by a machine and salvaged from demolition works. The face of the brick part is set back approximately 10 cm in relation to the face of the stone wall. Between the stone and the brick parts, there is a decorative strip of bricks consisting of two layers of bricks arranged in a stack bond and one layer arranged with a diagonal rhombus pattern.

The western elevation consists of two parts. In the southern part, there is one axis in the lower part of the wall – the entrance gate to the former monastery courtyard. The opening is topped with a segmental arch enclosed by a plastered, white painted surround. Above, there are two rectangular window openings also topped with a segmental arch, without windows. In the northern part, there are eleven irregularly arranged rectangular window openings of the monastery. The windows are set back in relation to the face of the wall. They are embedded in profiled surrounds, with a segmental cornice topped with a symmetrical, centrally placed palmette, flanked by scroll-like volutes. Under the windows, there is a sill formed by the cornice, based on corbels.

The building can be viewed from outside.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 27 April 2020 

Bibliography

• Szczepańska M., Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, 2006, Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź, National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw,
• Głowacki K., Urbanistyka Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego, Piotrków Trybunalski – Kielce 1984.
• Głowacki K., Mury obronne Piotrkowa Trybunalskiego [in:] Gazeta Ziemi Piotrkowskiej, no. 51-52 from 1967.