The church with a varied shape, with a tower on the west topped with a cupola with a lantern has a uniform late Baroque interior from the years 1772-75. The boat-shaped pulpit is of particular interest. The monastery building, also Baroque, originally connected to the church, is now the seat of the regional museum.

History of the structure

Krotoszyn - a district town located about 80 km south-east of Poznań, at the intersection of the Jarocin - Wrocław and Ostrów Wlkp. - Rawicz roads.

The oldest historical record confirming the existence of Krotoszyn dates back to 1405. It was originally chartered by King Władysław Jagiełło at the beginning of the 15th century in an area later called Stary Krotoszyn. The foundation was not successful and in 1415 Wierzbięta Krotoski, the then owner of the town, moved it to its present location. In the years 1816-1975 Krotoszyn was a district town. The Barefoot Trinitarians were brought to Krotoszyn in 1731 by Józef Potocki, Governor of Kiev, the then owner of the town. In 1733, the monastery was built, and in the years 1766-72, a brick church was erected on the site of the demolished wooden church. The church of St. Peter and Paul was originally the Krotoszyn parsonage church. In 1601 it became a parish church. In 1731 it was handed over by Józef Potocki to the Trinitarian Order, which dealt mainly with buying out prisoners from captivity and taking care of the poor. The Trinitarians were brought to Poland in the 17th century to Lviv and settled down mainly in the borderlands. The Krotoszyn monastery was the farthest to the west. At the beginning the monks who came to Krotoszyn lived in the rectory building. The monastery was built thanks to J. Potocki, and after his death, in 1766 - 1772, his wife, Ludwika of the Mniszech family, founded a church in place of the old one, which was falling into ruin. Originally the monastery was connected with the church by a corridor that facilitated communication for the monks. During the Napoleonic wars the monastery housed a lazaret and a military storehouse, first French (1807) and then Russian (1812). After the dissolution of the Trinitarian Order by the Prussian authorities in 1819, the former monastery building became the property of the town and its heirs. Initially, it housed the Royal National Court and between 1836 and 1881, the first secondary school in Krotoszyn, which gave rise to the Krotoszyn Gymnasium and the Higher School for Girls. In the second half of the 19th century, the building, abandoned by both schools, was adapted to military needs. The monastery building served as a barracks until the end of World War II, after which it was used for housing and warehouses. In 1969, thanks to the efforts of local PTTK activists, the building became the seat of the Museum of Krotoszyn Land and the former monastery premises were gradually adapted to museum needs. Nowadays it houses an art gallery and the Regional Museum with an interesting exposition illustrating the history of the town. The church performs the function of a parish church.

Description of the structure

The monastery complex is located in the town centre, west of the Market Square. It consists of two buildings parallel to each other on the east-west axis: the church of St. Peter and Paul and the former monastery building. The Baroque, single-nave Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul is a building of varied shape with rounded corners. It is covered with a multi-hipped roof with a ridge turret. A tower topped with a cupola with a lantern is adjacent to the nave from the west. Built of brick, plastered, on an elongated rectangular plan, from which a two-bay nave and a narrower single-bay chancel, closed in sections, were separated. The nave is octagonal in plan, defined by the diagonal walls of the rood beam pillars and sections of the choir gallery walls. Above the nave, there is a sail vault and in the extreme parts a hemispherical vault. The rounded chancel, angled side altars, and curved line of the choir give the church an oval shape. The wall planes are varied with pilasters, prismatic pillars and semi-columns with heads in the Corinthian order. The pillars and pilasters are decorated with floral ornaments in Rococo style. The uniform late Baroque interior decoration dates from 1772-1775. In the main altar there is a painting of Jesus Ecce Homo venerated by the Trinitarians, who took care of captives, slaves and prisoners. In the chancel there are coats of arms of the Potocki and Mniszech families and a plaque commemorating the consecration of the temple. In the side altar there is a painting of Our Lady of Krotoszyn, which comes from the original Parish Church. On the opposite side of the altar of the Lady of Krotoszyn is the altar of Christ Crucified. To the right of the main altar there is a chapel with a painting of the Merciful Jesus by a pillar, founded by a Krotoszyn resident, Mr Jan Lesiński. The boat-shaped pulpit is of particular interest. In the centre of the vault is a painting of the Holy Trinity. The decoration of the temple is reminiscent of the first hosts of this place, the Trinitarian Fathers.

The monastery building was erected on the site of the church cemetery. It is a brick, one-storey, free-standing building erected on a rectangular floor plan with an avant-corps on the eastern wall. The western elevation of the building with an arcaded portal with the coats of arms of the founder (Pilawa) and his wife (Mniszech) is representative. The interiors have a two-tract layout with a corridor in the middle. The rooms on the ground floor feature a barrel vault with lunettes, and a beamed ceiling has been preserved in the hallway. From the east, the church and the monastery were connected at the level of the first floor by a brick structure called “the porch” (demolished before 1836) and an underground passage (collapsed in the 1960s). The monastery building is covered with a three-hipped roof. Adjacent to the monastery from the south side is a small square - Wolności Square which was laid out on the grounds of the former monastery garden.

Visitor access: the site is open to visitors.

Compiled by: Beata Marzęta, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 15.11.2017

Bibliography

• Anders P., Województwo kaliskie, Warszawa-Poznań, 1983, pp. 225-232
• Barokowe kościoły Wielkopolski, collective work edited by M. Grzebalski, Poznań 2006, pp. 130-131
• Diecezja kaliska. Parafie – kościoły - kaplice, Kalisz 2016
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, Vol. V, z. 25, pp. 11-13
• Krotoszyn, praca zbiorowa. pod red. Dionizego Kosińskiego, Krotoszyn-Poznań 1995, Vol. 1, pp. 259-260
• Zabytkowe klasztory w Wielkopolsce, Poznań 2006, p. 36