History

After the brick monastery building had been completed, the superior of the Franciscan order - Father Tomasz Kotlarski - set about to improve the area surrounding of the church and the monastery.

Thanks to the donation of additional land by the Karnkowski family, the monks were able to expand their social and economic base.

Father Kotlarski commissioned the construction of a smithy, a brewery, a two-room hospital for the poor and some utility buildings. All this happened around 1748, when the monks moved to the new building.

The construction material came from a brickyard erected “on the land of the Lord”.

As evidenced by descriptions found in the archives and as seen on preserved photographs, the row of buildings stretched from the south-west corner of the plot eastwards, along Okólna Street. According to a description from 1870, the buildings occupied more than a half of the monastery yard. From the south, they were connected by the brick fence surrounding the monastery premises.

They consisted of structures of various purposes, including stables, cowsheds, piggeries and habitable quarters for the servants of the monastery.

In the 1846 census it is stated that: “The monastic house, set at an obtuse angle, was built from fired bricks laid with lime mortar. On the side facing the yard, the entire roof surface is covered with wood shingles and the side facing the road - only in half. The monastery contains dwellings, stables and coach houses, with a tower in the middle. It is in use and in an average condition”.

The tower was topped with a dome covered with English sheet metal. Atop the dome, there was a cross.

Most of the rooms had barrel and groin vaults. While in some rooms the floors were wooden, in other rooms there were floors made from compacted clay or bricks. In the stable, there was a floor made from logs on joists. In the southern part (near the monastery refectory), there was a brewery. In the south-west corner, there was a two-room hospital for the poor.

After the defeat of the January Uprising, the Franciscans faced reprisals for helping the insurgents and were removed from Łagiewniki.

The monastery was deserted for some time, then a parish was established there under the pressure of the local community.

In the absence of comprehensive management, the utility buildings gradually fell into disrepair. Their renovation was necessary already in the 1870s. As mentioned in records from 1890 , the buildings were “dilapidated, about to collapse”.

However, they were not renovated until the beginning of the 20th century. According to an inventory from 1907, restoration works included the coach house, the barn, the cowshed and the two-storey outbuilding.

Probably at that time most of the remaining buildings were demolished as unusable. The other buildings were pulled down during the Second World War.

When the Franciscans returned to Łagiewniki, they decided, after completing the renovation works at the church and monastery, that the already existing buildings stood too close to the church. In 1930, new utility buildings were built to the north of the church (on the site of the present-day seminary).

In 1755, an investment project was undertaken in connection with the construction of the fence. It was completed in several stages. Initially, a wall was erected in the front (western) part at the church, and in the southern and south-eastern parts. In 1763, a wall was built to the east and west of the monastery. Finally, fences were erected around the fruit and vegetable gardens.

Initially, there were two gates leading to the monastery yard: from the south (opposite St. Valentine’s Chapel), and from the east (opposite the road to Piotrków). A wooden tower rose above the eastern gate. From the west, another gate led to the church area.

The present-day main gate, situated opposite the façade of the church, dates to the beginning of the 20th century.

It was accessed via double stairs. In 2009, the main entrance to the church area was remodelled and modernized on the basis of the preserved iconographic materials.

The northernmost gate is contemporary.

The north-eastern section of the fence was altered several times by successive owners.

The Franciscans returned to Łagiewniki after the First World War. In 1920, they bought a piece of land from Baron Heinzel with the aim to enlarge the garden. Soon after having been purchased, the garden was surrounded with a fence, which still exists today.

In 1929, the Franciscans divided the garden. One of its parts became an enclosed garden, accessible only to the monks, near the monastery building.

In 1938, the wall in the garden part was covered with plaster.

The fence owes its present-day appearance and size to the renovation works carried out by the Franciscan Fathers upon their return to the monastery after the wartime turmoil.

Description

The heritage buildings were built from ceramic bricks. The buildings and a part of the fence were smoothly plastered.

Five gates provide access to the area. The three gates facing west and south-west are of historical significance. The fourth north-west gate is contemporary and so is the fifth gate in the eastern section of the fence. The main, double-winged gate is situated in front of the entrance to the church. A modern driveway leads to that gate, which replaced the original four-flight, quarter-turn, double stairs. The stairs were secured with a metal balustrade.

The gates have not survived to this day.

The face of the wall contains discernible traces left by the oldest gate, once situated at the western wing of the monastery. Access to that gate was provided via simple, one-flight stairs. In the internal south-west wall of the utility building, one can see the remnants of the second gate, in the form of an arched niche supported by two pilasters.

The fence of the monastery complex in Łagiewniki was built in several stages. Therefore, its particular sections differ with their height, security elements and plasterwork finish. The most recently erected sections of the fence include the north-west section along Przyklasztorze Street, a fragment along the road leading to the Roman Catholic cemetery and the northern fragment of the eastern section. They were constructed after 1918, after the Franciscans had taken over the areas which they had bought with the aim to enlarge the monastery garden from the north. The fence surrounding this area is low. The outer side of its western section is partly covered with cement plaster. The north-west corner is covered with plaster too. The inner side of the fence is not plastered. It is decorated with rhythmically arranged pilaster strips, which protrude beyond the face of the wall. The fence is topped with a plastered gable roof. On the outer side, the north-west corner is accentuated by a brick chapel with a figure of the Virgin Mary. The chapel is higher than the fence. The north-facing section of the fence remains unplastered. The oldest part of the fence, which includes the western part at the front, the south-western part and the southern part, is a massive wall supported by buttresses and covered with contemporary cement plaster. The wall is topped with a roof from red ceramic tiles. The outer and inner surface of its southern part is filled with decorative panelling. The wall has a plastered top, slightly overhanging the face of the wall. From the outside, the central part of this section of the wall is supported by four diagonal, plastered buttresses. Next to the square between the seminary and the church and monastery building, the inner side of the western section of the fence is likewise covered with cement plaster and filled with decorative panelling with segmental arches. The outer side of the south-western part of the wall is plastered too. On the inner side of the south-eastern part, there are some traces probably left by a no longer existing wicket. The east-facing part of the fence is unplastered on both sides. It is topped with a brick, plastered, gable roof. Inside the complex, there are two low brick fences. The low fence, with a plastered, church-facing, eastern section, separates the sacral part from the garden part. the other fence is slightly higher and unplastered. It separates the northern and southern parts of the former monastery garden.

The building has been converted into a day room and a canteen for the poor and its interiors have been adapted accordingly. They are contemporary in style. The shape of the building and its external appearance have been preserved. The building was erected on a floor plan of an elongated rectangle slightly bent towards the west. Its southern wall is incorporated into the fence too. There are two rectangular doors leading inside from the south, preceded by five-step stairs. There are also three doors on the north-facing side, as well as four double-wing gates leading to the utility building. The latter directly adjoins the day room and the canteen from the west. The whole building is covered with a steep gable roof clad with sheet metal cut into rectangles. A part of the roof is supported by a wooden truss with a non-typical purlin structure, assembled with straining beams placed on the site of collar beams, with no division into complete and incomplete tie beams. The rafters with straining beams are positioned out of alignment with the queen posts. The straining beams are placed at every third tie beam. A part of the wooden truss was replaced with a metal structure made from double-t beams. The roof truss is accessed via a winding staircase with full brick stringers. In the northern part of the roof slope, there are three dormers with small rectangular window openings. In the southern slope, there are five metal vents in the form of pseudo dormers. From the south, the wall of the building was pierced with ten rectangular window openings (one small, shaped like a rectangle with its longer side as its base, is situated at the edge of the western part of the wall). On the northern side, there are six windows of various shapes. In front of the internal wall, there are two rectangular windows, and behind it, there are two small, rectangular windows, as well as one large, multi-section window with metal muntins and one small semicircular window.

There is unrestricted access to the fence from outside. A visit inside the building is possible upon prior arrangement at the parish office.

Compiled by Patrycja Podgarbi 25 September 2019

Bibliography

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• Piasecki J., Opisanie kościołów i klasztorów księży franciszkanów prowincji polskiej, in: Pamiętnik religijno- moralny, Warszawa 1844, vol. VII
• Gliński I., Z Łagiewnik, Przegląd Katolicki, 1895, no. 8
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• Kłosy 1872 no. 368 vol. XV
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• Kaplice w Łagiewnickim lesie, dzieje, badania i prace konserwatorskie, Łódź 2007
• Podgarbi P. Record sheet of the immovable heritage site entered in the register of monuments - the fence and utility building of the monastery of the Franciscan Fathers in Łagiewniki, Łódź 2019