In 1404, it became the parish church for the chartered New Town.

History

The date of construction of the church of the Holy Spirit is not known. As a hospital church to the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary, it probably existed already in the 14th century. This is confirmed, apart from the dedication, by the location of the church at the verges of the then town, by the exit road. Just beyond the church, there was a town gate called Krakowska. Probably as a result of significant urban development in this part of the town, which became later New Town, a need occurred to establish a parish church. Before 1404, the church of the Holy Spirit was converted in the Gothic style. The conversion works were founded by archbishop of Gniezno Mikołaj Kurowski, Szreniwa coat of arms, and the church was declared a parish church. The building changed over centuries as a result of damages and renovation works. Four chapels were added to the nave and the chancel: in 1559, chapel of St Crispin and St Crispinian - patron saints of shoemakers; approx. in 1601, chapel of the Holy Trinity (of the guild of saddlers) and chapel of St Valentine (municipal chapel, former chapel of the Roszkiewicz family, and as of the moment of placing a Black Madonna of Częstochowa painting in it - chapel of Black Madonna of Częstochowa); in 1819, chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary (chapel of Confraternity of the Rosary). The church was burned down in 1559 and was rebuilt after 1621. In 1620, archbishop Wawrzyniec Gembicki founded the church tower - an early-Baroque tower covered with an onion-shaped cupola, which was extended upwards and renovated in 1904 according to a design by Konstanty Wojciechowski. The church was destroyed in 1656, and 1657, it underwent restoration works. The building was destroyed once again in the years 1704-1709. After the fire in 1753, reconstruction works lasted several years - the building was provided with Baroque forms at that time. Until today, only the chancel of the Gothic church has survived. In 1778, the western façade of the church was founded by priest Ignacy Chrzeliński and built from construction material coming from the dismantled Emaus church. In 1833, the church was converted and modernised. In 1658, the chapel of St Crispin and St Crispinian was destroyed and robbed by the Swedes, and in 1753, it was burned down. In 1833, a new chapel was built, renovated in 1850. In February 1919, a marble slab commemorating Jan Kiliński was founded by craftsmen of Łowicz and embedded in the chapel wall. The chapel of the Holy Trinity, which was burned down in 1753, was rebuilt in approx. 1833. It was renovated in 1907 and 1928. The chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was renovated in 1833.

Description

The church is located in the western part of the town, at the intersection of Długa St., S. Stanisławskiego St., and Kurkowa St. The area of the church cemetery is circumscribed by solid walls in which exits to Długa St. and S. Stanisławskiego St. are placed. The oriented, single-nave church with a narrower chancel terminating in a semi-hexagon is made of brick in the Polish (Gothic) pattern. From the north, the chancel is adjoined by a rectangular annex housing porch and sacristy at the ground floor level, and treasury on the first floor. Also from the north, the nave is adjoined by two rectangular chapels - of the Holy Trinity and of St Valentine, with a tower built on a square floor plan between them. At the ground floor level of the tower, there is a porch, and on the first floor, two rooms. From the south, a rectangular chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was added (terminating with an apse, semi-circular inside, and shaped as a half of a hexagon from the outside), and next to it, a rectangular chapel of St Crispin and St Crispinian was added to the nave. The floor is made of clinker brick. The rood opening is of pointed-arch type. The chapels open to the interior of the church with arcades. The choir is rests on three arcades covered with groin vaults with lunettes, the sacristy and the porches are covered with a barrel vault, the chapel of the Holy Trinity - with a groin vault, and other interiors are covered with flat ceilings. On the vaults and walls of the nave and the chancel, there are eclectic paintings from the turn of the 19th and 20th century, made with the use of a mixed technique (canvas pasted on the plasterwork). The roof truss, of king post type, is made of wood. In the tower, there is a wooden post-and-frame structure supporting bells, reinforced by St Andrew’s crosses. Over the nave, the chapel of St Valentine, and the chapel of St Crispin and St Crispinian, there is a gable roof laid with pantile, over the chapel of Our Lady of Rosary - a gable roof clad with sheet metal, and over the annex and the chapel of the Holy Trinity - a mono-pitched roof covered with roof tiles. From the outside, the chancel rests on a plinth; the nave and the southern annex are covered with weatherboards. The chancel and the southern wall of the nave feature whitewashed friezes under the cornice, and pointed-arch window reveals of the windows with semi-circular top sections. The western façade is late-Baroque in style. It has three axes, a plinth, is partitioned with four pilasters, and topped with a profiled cornice over which there is a pediment with volutes on the sides. The outermost axes are defined by two high windows with semi-circular lintels. On the central axis, there is a segment-headed entrance over which there is a small blind window with a semi-circular end section. The chancel is framed by four stepped buttresses with four high windows with semi-circular top sections in pointed-arch window reveals. The annex by the northern wall of the chancel has two axes and two stepped buttresses. It rests on a low plinth and is topped with a narrow, chamfered cornice. One of the windows has a semi-circular top section, and the other one is rectangular. The eastern façade is of gable type, with one axis, and a corned with a Tuscan pilaster, with traces of a Gothic pinnacle gable and a segmental arch window. On the northern façade, there is the chapel of the Holy Trinity (on the eastern side of the tower). The chapel has one axis, a segmental arch window, and is topped with a chamfered cornice. The tower is a two-storey building, Baroque in style in the upper sections, with rusticated corners. It is partitioned by two string courses and topped with a profiled cornice, above which there is an onion-shaped cupola on a high square platform topped with a cornice bent in a semi-circular shape in the middle. On its axis, there is a small window. The cupola is topped with a steeple turret. On the first floor, there is a small rectangular window, circumscribed by a surround with upper sections extending sideways. The other three windows of the tower are high, terminating in a semi-circle in the upper section, and circumscribed by architectural surround (cornice at the windows’ bottom, pilasters, and arch of the arcade). At the ground floor level of the tower there is a stone rectangular portal framed by doubled pilasters supporting entablature over which there is a gable with volutes topped with pinnacles. In the middle of the gable, there is a scrollwork cartouche with the Nałęcz coat of arms, and insignia monogram of the founder - archbishop Wawrzyniec Gembicki - and date “1604”. In the chapel of St Valentine, topped with a chamfered cornice, there is a round window from the north and a rectangular one from the west. The southern façade in the western part has two axes and is topped with a cornice, beneath which there is a flat plastered frieze. On the axis, there is a stepped buttress. The windows are high and terminate in semi-circles in the upper section, and feature pointed-arch reveals. The chapel of St Crispin and St Crispinian has two axes and is topped with a profiled cornice. The windows are high, with pointed arches in the top section. The façades of the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary are partitioned with a string course and topped with a chamfered cornice in the eastern wall. The windows are of pointed-arch type, in the south-eastern wall there is a pointed-arch blind window, and in the south-western wall - a pointed-arch window. Over the string course, there are four little round windows. In the buttresses of the annex and the chapel of the Holy Trinity, two little stone plinths were embedded, originating from the 17th century and with rose flower decoration and semi-balusters. In the southern wall of the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, a Renaissance grave slab is embedded with a relief of a lying woman. Most fittings of the church originate from the turn of the 19th and the 20th century, as well as almost all the altarpieces - they are eclectic, of architectural type, and made of wood, painted, and gilded. In the chancel, there is a new winged main altar, with a Baroque painting of Our Lady of Solace in the central area. On both sides of the altar, there are Baroque sculptures between the columns (St Augistine and bishop) from the 2nd half of the 18th century. In the nave, by the rood, there are two side, 18th-century altars. On the rood beam, there is a Baroque painted crucifix from the 2nd half of the 18th century. By the rood from the north, there is an eclectic ambo from the end of the 19th century, topped with a sculpture of Resurrected Christ. In the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, there is an early-classical altar embedded in a semi-circular apse, transferred after 1818 from a Dominican church, with a Gothic sculpture of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Child from approx 1500 in the central area. In the chapel of St Crispin and St Crispinian, there is an 18th-century stucco altar (marbleised). On the choir, there is a pipe organ casing, partially sculptured, from the end of the 19th century, topped with a sculpture depicting David. The vaults and walls of the nave and the chancel are decorated with paintings from the turn of the 19th and the 20th century, presenting the following scenes: Ascension, God the Father, Christ teaching from the boat, Holy Mother, and images of saints (among others Andrew, Peter and Paul, Bartholomew, Joseph, Adalbert, Casimir, Jadwiga). The church's fittings include many movable artefacts: reliquaries, paintings, candlesticks, ostensoria, chalices, altar crucifixes, liturgical robes, eternal lights - all coming from the 18th, 19th, and 20th century, and - in rare cases - from the 17th century. A couple of grave plaques from the 19th and the 20th century.

Limited access to the historic monument. It can be visited by prior telephone arrangement.

compiled by Jolanta Welc-Jędrzejewska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Łódź, 29-07-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, t. 2: Województwo łódzkie, Warszawa 1954
• Stachlewski W., Łowicz i okolice, Łowicz 1993.