Since it was built, the Church has been in the hands of the Orthodox religious community, under the original invocation. The noteworthy features include the polychromes inside the church, a wooden choir gallery, iconostasis and paintings. Those in the altar depict Christ on the Mount of Olives, whereas the iconostasis depicts the Mother of God with the Child, Christ and the holy archdeacons Stefan and Philip.

History

The church was completed in 1898. The consecration ceremony took place on 4 October. On that day, Hieronim - the Archbishop of Chełm and Warsaw, also consecrated the antimins - a piece of silk cloth with a small relic of a saint sewn into it. The temple was the third Orthodox church in Łódź. It was built to provide spiritual care for the growing Orthodox congregation.

Description

The church occupies a rectangular plot at the intersection of Piramowicza and Narutowicza streets. From the south, it is adjoined by a two-storey building. Another building, three-storey, occupies the northern part of the land plot. The church is oriented: the entrance is situated in the western part overlooking Piramowicza Street. The chancel is located in the east-facing part of the church. The church was built on a rectangular plan, on a high basement. The interior was laid out as a single nave. The chancel is adjoined by a small rectangular sacristy from the north and terminated with a three-sided apse. In the west-facing part, there are wide stairs on both sides which lead to the terrace in front of the main entrance. Over the entrance, there is a two-storey tower, with a square lower part and an octagonal upper part. The tower is topped with an onion-shaped cupola, the latter being clad with small, rhomboidal pieces of sheet metal. The other roofs - a gable roof over the nave of the church, a shed roof over the sacristy and a multi-hipped roof over the chancel - have sheet metal cladding.

On the elevations, the only external decorations are the clearly accentuated horizontal divisions in the form of stepped cornices running under and above the windows. Similar cornices separate particular storeys of the tower. The body of the church is crowned with a distinctive arcaded frieze. An identical frieze separates the first storey of the tower, which is crowned with a dentil cornice running just under the cupola. The tops of the semicircular window openings in the body of the church and in the tower are enclosed with wide, smooth surrounds.

Elements of interest in the interior include the floral and geometric polychromes on the flat ceiling and the side walls. An integral part of the interior is the wooden iconostasis, which comprises tiers of icons with images of saints, as well as a wooden choir gallery with a baluster railing.

The church can be visited upon prior arrangement at the parish office at No. 46/1 Narutowicza Street.

Compiled by Patrycja Podgarbi, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 18 January 2019

Bibliography

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• K. Stefański, Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, Orthodox Church of St. Olga, Łódź, October 1989.
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