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The Cistercian monastery church, now the parish church of St. John the Baptist - Zabytek.pl

The Cistercian monastery church, now the parish church of St. John the Baptist


monastery Owińska

Address
Owińska, Plac Przemysława 9

Location
woj. wielkopolskie, pow. poznański, gm. Czerwonak

The monastery complex in Owińska is one of the most valuable Baroque monuments in Wielkopolska.

Erected for the Cistercian nuns, the Church of St. John the Baptist is an example of late Baroque sacral architecture. The author of the project was one of the most prominent architects working in Wielkopolska in the first half of 18th century – Pompeo Ferrari from Rome. Inside the temple, uniform late Baroque furnishings have been preserved, probably also designed by Pompeo Ferrari. The vaults of the church are decorated with a figural polychrome from the years 1729-30 - the work of Franciscan painter Adam Swach. Adjacent to the church on the south are the monastery buildings, built according to the project of the architect Jan Catenazzi, completed by Pompeo Ferrari.

History of the structure

The first mention of Owińska dates back to the year 1249 (Ovensco), however, the establishment of the village can be dated to the turn of the 12th/13th century or the beginning of the 13th century. It was a ducal village. Before 1252 the dukes of Wielkopolska, Przemysł I and Bolesław the Pious granted Owińska to the Cistercian nuns from Trzebnica. According to Długosz, it took place in 1242, but this view cannot be maintained. Efforts to establish the monastery began in 1248, with construction work taking place in the following years. The monastery was supposed to be a votive offering for saving Wielkopolska from the destructive Tatar invasion. The nuns were brought to Owińska from the Silesian abbey in Trzebnica in the last months of 1252. The oldest church, originally the church of the Holy Cross, was erected in the years 1248-53. The monastery was completed in 1261. In the 14th century, the church was rebuilt, as can be seen from a fragment of the western wall of the church on the floor of the tower.

Around 1700, thanks to the efforts of the abbess Katarzyna Mielżyńska, a new monastery was built. The plans were drawn up by the architect Jan Catenazzi. The bell tower was probably built at that time. In 1720, the church and monastery were destroyed by fire. In the years 1720-28, on the initiative of the abbess Joanna Malczewska, the monastery was rebuilt and completed, and a new church was erected according to the project of architect Pompeo Ferrari. During the construction of the church a part of the temple walls from the middle of the 13th century that survived the fire were used. The church was consecrated in 1731. In 1773 a fire partially destroyed the roof of the church and damaged the sacristy and monastery.

Owińska remained in possession of the Cistercians nuns until 1797, when the Prussian state sold the estate to a banker from Berlin, Sigismund Otto von Treskow. The village remained in the hands of this family until 1945. In 1821 the monastery was dissolved. Since then the church served as a parish church. In 1835-38 - the monastery was converted into an institution for the mentally ill. In 1874, the monastery buildings were rebuilt (second floor extension). The rectory building was also rebuilt. The south side wing of the monastery was demolished in 1890. In 1931, the interior of the church was renovated under the direction of painter Władysław Lam. In 1939-45 the monastery was occupied by the Nazi army. After 1945 the buildings were used as the State Educational Institute for Blind Children (now a Special School and Educational Centre for Blind Children). In 1970 the PP Monuments Conservation Workshops from Poznań began conservation of the polychrome. This work continued into the last decade of the last century. In recent years, the elevation has been renovated, the windows restored and the church has been drained.

Description of the structure

The late Baroque monastery complex is situated on the eastern, high bank of Warta, near the edge of the river valley. The quadrangle of the monastery adjoins the oriented church of St. John the Baptist to the south, protruding for the most part from the church façade and enclosing the church courtyard to the south. In the courtyard, on the eastern side, to the north of the church, there is the director’s house, dating back to ca. 1835-1838 (now a presbytery) - on the western side, there is a former rectory building (rebuilt in the 19th century as an office), connected to the monastery by a low passage. The courtyard is accessed through a gate on the north side. Behind the monastery is the former monastery garden, now the only Spatial Orientation Park in Europe, created in 2012.

The Church of St. John the Baptist is an example of a central building. It was built on a quadrilateral plan close to a square. It consists of a square nave separated by four pillars, a rectangular chancel to the east, side aisles with rectangular bays to the south and north and a rectangular choir to the west. Behind the chancel is a separate sacristy, octagonal on the inside and square on the outside. On the south-western side, where the church façade meets the monastery - there is a bell tower on a square floor plan. The nave is topped with a cupola ceiling covered with an eight-sided roof with a lantern ending in a bulbous cupola. The side parts of the church are covered with monopitch roofs. There is a separate gable roof over the sacristy, which is much lower than the church. The whole is dominated by a four-storey tower covered with a bulbous cupola topped with a sphere and a cross.

The church is a brick building. Its walls are covered with plaster. The roofs have sheet metal covering. Inside, the nave is covered by a cupola ceiling, supported by four pairs of arches separating fields of varying width. The cupola is crowned with a lantern. In the chancel, above the monastery choir and in the side aisles - dome-shaped vaults with elliptical central fields separated by cornices. Under the galleries and the choir - cross vaults on the arches. The sacristy is covered with an eight-sided dome-shaped vault.

The church’s elevations are divided by flat, mostly doubled pilasters and topped with triangular pediments on the east, west and north sides. In the axis of the western elevation there is a semicircular main entrance with a 19th century portal in the form of a shallow arcaded portico flanked with pilasters. The windows are usually closed segmentally or semicircularly, some of them have profiled frames. Above the entrance and in the northern and eastern elevations - large windows with fanciful concave-convex carvings.

Inside, four pillars framed with pilasters separate the main nave. Between the pillars there are high arcades, open to the chancel, to the monastic choir and to the middle bays of the side aisles, giving the building the shape of a Greek cross. Similar arcades connect the arms of the cross and the outermost bays with corner galleries. In the east, south and north walls there are niches framed with pilasters, in which the main altar and two side altars were set up. In the western part of the church, a monastic choir was built in between the pillars, decorated with rich stucco decoration with regency motifs. Under the south-east gallery a column portal has been preserved, enclosing the passage from the church to the monastery (now bricked up). The interior of the church was decorated with polychromy made by the Franciscan Adam Swach in the years 1729-30. The paintings cover all the vaults, the arcades supporting the galleries, the walls by the side altars and the niches under the monastery choir. The compositions show scenes from the lives of Mary, Jesus and the saints. The central cupola ceiling contains, among others, the scene of the adoration of the Holy Trinity by the kneeling Cistercian nuns, in the background - a view of the church in Owińska.

The uniform Baroque furnishings of the church, mostly with Regency-style ornamentation, were made in 1728-30, probably according to designs by Pompeo Ferrari. They include, among others, the main altar with the sculpture of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in the middle field, two side altars by the pillars in the main nave, two altars in the side aisles, the pulpit with the statue of St. John of Nepomuk on the canopy, inlaid stalls, confessionals and pews, and numerous 17th- and 18th-century paintings. Rococo furnishings of the sacristy from around 1780 have also been preserved.

The monastery adjoining the church from the south was built on a quadrilateral plan. Four rectangular, one-bay wings surround a square-shaped cloister. The western wing is adjoined by a one-bay utility wing (added after 1773). A similar wing adjacent to the south wing was demolished in 1890. Individual wings are currently three-storey, covered by two- or three-pitch roofs.

The monastery buildings were made of brick, and their walls were plastered. The roofs are covered with ceramic roof tiles. The interiors were covered with flat ceilings, some rooms have preserved trough vaults with stucco decorations. In the cloisters – double barrel vaults. The elevations have been disfigured by first floor additions and later alterations. The front elevation (northern) consists of a triaxial eastern part and a five-axial western part (originally topped with a triangular gable). This elevation is divided by pilasters in giant order, pilaster divisions were also introduced in the superstructure part in the years 1874-80. In the eastern part of the elevation there is an entrance topped with a semicircular arch, framed by engaged columns supporting a mitred cornice. The windows are rectangular in shape, framed with chambranle surrounds. The pilaster divisions are also present on the west elevation of the south wing and on the north elevation of the utility wing. The elevations of the other wings are devoid of divisions, their windows have been re-bricked. From the side of the cloister, the windows to the patio are topped with a semicircular arch.

Visitor access. The church is accessible to visitors. More information on the temple is available at the website of the parish of St. John the Baptist: www.owinska.pl. For information about the Centre for Blind Children, please visit www.niewidomi.edu.pl.

Compiled by: Krzysztof Jodłowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 24.10.2017

Bibliography

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Objects data updated by Andrzej Kwasik.

Category: monastery

Architecture: nieznana

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_30_BK.166544, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_30_BK.42314