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Parish Church of the Holy Family - Zabytek.pl

Parish Church of the Holy Family


church Piła

Address
Piła, św. Jana Bosko 1

Location
woj. wielkopolskie, pow. pilski, gm. Piła

The Church of the Holy Family with a chapel, a bell tower, and a fence with a gate form a stylistically uniform complex of neo-Baroque sacral architecture from the first quarter of the 20th century.

The temple was built according to the design of a renowned Berlin architect - Oskar Siede. The shape of the building, the architectural details and the interior fittings are characterized by high artistic class.

History of the structure

Piła is located on the river Gwda, in the territory of the Ujście starosty. The town was probably founded after 1437 by Marcin from Sławsko, a crown estate leaseholder of Ujście and a Governor of Kalisz. The first references to the local head of the commune date back to 1449 and 1451. The earliest mention of the town comes from 1478. In 1513, based on a privilege granted by Sigismund I the Old, the town was re-founded under German law. In 1605 Piła was given as a dowry to the wife of Sigismund III, Konstancja. After a fire in 1626, the town was rebuilt and regulated by the efforts of Queen Konstancja. From the 17th century until the early 19th century, Piła was a significant weaving centre. After the first partition of Poland in 1772, the town was incorporated into Prussia. After World War I, Piła remained within the borders of Germany. In the years 1922-38 it was the seat of the Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen authorities, and in the years 1922-45 - the authorities of the Piła regency. As a result of the war in 1945, the town was almost completely destroyed.

The foundation of the church and parish in Piła is connected with the foundation of the town. The parish is mentioned for the first time in 1451 (reference is made to the parish priest Michał). The original wooden church was dedicated to St. Adalbert, Stanislaus and Martin. From 1556 it remained in the hands of dissenters. Recovered in 1586. At the end of the 16th century, the wooden temple was in poor condition. The construction of the new church began in 1619 from the foundation of Queen Konstancja. In 1626 the unfinished building was destroyed during a fire in the town. In 1628, the construction of the brick chancel began again, it was completed in 1641. At that time the temple bore the name of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. John the Baptist. In the mid-17th century, a wooden nave was added, which in 1726-29 was replaced with a timber-framed nave filled with plastered brick. After the church was destroyed in a fire in 1742, probably in the third quarter of the 18th century, the nave was rebuilt in a brick construction and at the same time the construction of the lower storeys of the towers began, which were added in 1844. From 1745 the church bore the name of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist.

At the end of the 19th century, due to growing tensions between Polish and German Catholics, the idea of dividing the existing parish and building a second Catholic church for Germans was born. In 1908, it was decided that the cost of building the church would be covered by funds raised by the Catholic community and the Poznań Province fund. In the same year, the commune sold the land belonging to it to the city. In April 1910, the Ministry of Public Works approved the design of the temple made by the Berlin architect Oskar Siede. Construction began in May 1912, was completed in 1914, and in 1915 and the following years work continued on finishing and equipping the temple. Rev. Adalbert Lenz, the parish priest and military chaplain at the time, supervised the work. The church was solemnly consecrated on 5 December 1915. The neo-Baroque temple initially served as an auxiliary church for the parish of St. Johns, then from 1926 - the chair of the Independent Prelature of Piła.

In 1945, during the fights for Piła, the Church of St. Johns was damaged (the roof was destroyed, the interior burned out). In the following years, a number of projects related to the ruins were developed (reconstruction in part or in whole, allocation for the Municipal Library, preservation of the ruins as a war memorial). Unfortunately, none of these projects came to fruition. The church was blown up in 1975. In its place, the “Rodło” hotel was built in 1977-87.

Since 1946, the Holy Family Church has served as the parish church. The pastoral institution was entrusted to the Salesian Congregation. In 1952-57 the vaults of the church were decorated with paintings made by Jan Kot and Teodor Szukała. The church has been renovated many times, e.g. in 1983 the roofing was changed, ceramic tiles were replaced with copper sheets. In 2001 the Bishop of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg Marian Gołębiewski issued a decree stating that the parish of the Holy Family is a continuator of the parish established in 1619 of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Johns in Piła.

Description of the structure

The church of the Holy Family in Piła is situated in the city centre, to the west, on the side of the Gwda River, in the area limited by Kilińskiego Str. (from the east), Sikorskiego Str. (from the north) and Św. Jana Bosco Str. (from the west and south). The building is oriented. It is surrounded by a wooded area surrounded by a fence made of metal grates set on a low wall between plastered posts. From the west an avenue leads towards the church.

The neo-Baroque church was built on a Latin cross floor plan. The building consists of a three-nave, four-span body, a transept and a single-span chancel closed on five sides. A rectangular sacristy adjoins the chancel from the south, and a chapel on a rectangular floor plan with truncated corners from the north. In the last western bay of the church - a pair of towers on a square-shaped plan. The nave, the arms of the transept and the chancel are covered with high gable roofs, and a five-slope roof over the chancel closure. The much lower side aisles are covered with shed roofs. Above the crossing of the naves - a small ridge turret, covered with a spherical cupola. The sacristy is covered with a three-slope roof. Above the chancel - a cupola with a lantern. The whole is dominated by high, four-storey towers, covered with cupolas topped with lanterns.

The church is a brick building. Its walls are covered with plaster, the lower parts of the walls were faced with stone blocks. The roofs, tower cupolas and the chapel’s dome are covered with copper sheet. The nave is covered with a barrel vault (with a basket cross-section) on the arches, with shallow lunettes, over the arms of the transept and chancel - barrel vaults (with a semicircular cross-section). There is a sail vault above the aisle crossing. The side aisles are covered with cross vaults.

The church elevations are divided by simple pilasters and crowned by profiled cornices. Windows of varied shapes, covered with plaster surrounds; above some of them there are window headers in the form of curved cornice sections. The front elevation framed by a pair of towers, three-axial, divided by profiled cornices. On the axis there is a rectangular entrance framed by a pair of stone Ionic columns supporting a broken pediment of concave-convex shape with volutes. In the field of the pediment - floral decoration and the IHS monogram in a cartouche frame. Above the entrance - a window topped with a semi-circular arch. The central part of the lowest storey is crowned with a segmental pediment with a relief representation of the Eye of Providence. Above the cornice crowning the second storey, there is a gable framed with volutes and topped with a concave-convex pediment. In the gable there is a conch niche with a statue of the Virgin Mary with Child. The elevations of the towers are single-axis, four-storey. Individual storeys have rectangular and round windows topped with a semi-circular arch. In the side elevations of the towers (from the south and the north) there are side entrances to the church topped with semi-circular arches, framed with pilasters and segmented pediments with floral decorations. The side elevations of the body are triaxial. Each bay of the side aisles has a pair of windows closed with a concave-convex arch, above the roofs of the side aisles the oval windows of the main nave are visible. The elevations of the northern and southern arms of the transept are single-axis, with large semicircular windows. In the western elevations of the transept arms - rectangular entrances framed with chambranled portals. In the closure of the chancel there are five high windows topped with a semicircular arch. In the sacristy’s elevations from the south there is an entrance in a profiled frame, segmented and a rectangular window, from the east - a pair of similar windows. In the chapel’s north side - a rectangular entrance with a profiled frame, topped with a voluted cartouche with a Christological monogram and a bent section of the cornice, and higher - a round window in a decorative frame, from the east - a rectangular entrance to the crypt and a semicircular window.

The interior of the nave body is divided by pillar-shaped, basket-vaulted arcades. The pillars on the side of the nave are framed by pairs of pilasters. The chancel and the arms of the transept open into the nave with semicircular arcades. In the western part of the nave there is a music gallery supported by a pair of columns, with a balustrade. The walls, with the exception of the western wall of the nave and the walls closing the transept - are topped with profiled cornices. The chancel and the arms of the transept are covered with barrel vaults, the apse of the chancel with a hemispherical vault, and the crossing of the naves with a sail vault. The main nave features a flattened barrel vault with lunettes, in the side naves - cross vaults. The vaults were decorated with paintings in profiled frames. On the vault of the chancel is a representation of the Holy Family, in the bay of the crossing of the naves - the scene of the Adoration of the Holy Trinity by the saints and images of the four evangelists, in the arms of the transept - Our Lady of Perpetual Help and St. John Bosco. Three scenes are depicted on the vault of the nave: In St. Joseph’s Workshop, Saturday Ray and Musical Angels.

The neo-Baroque interior furnishings from the period of the church’s construction include an architectural main altar, two side altars, a pulpit and a baptismal font. In the main altar, a silver Crucifix is placed in a conch niche. On the volutes embracing the niche - two adoring angels. At the top of the altar - the IHS monogram in radiant glory, supported by a pair of angels. On either side of the altar - two statues of saints. The side altars contain statues of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (on the north side) and the Virgin Mary with Child (on the south side). The pulpit was decorated with painted images of the four evangelists, its canopy is crowned with figures of angels. On the cover of the baptismal font there is a group of the Baptism in the Jordan. The stained glass windows that cover the chancel windows were made in the 1960s in Leonard Brzezinski’s workshop in Szamotuły.

Visitor access. The church can be visited both from the outside and inside. More information about the parish and the Holy Mass schedule can be found on the parish website: swietarodzina.pila.pl, and on the website of the Koszalin-Kołobrzeg diocese: diecezjakoszalin.pl

Compiled by: Krzysztof Jodłowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 08.08.2017

Bibliography

  • Boras, Dworecki, Piła : zarys dziejów, Piła 1993
  • Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, Vol. V, z. 18: powiat trzcianecki, Warsaw 1966, pp. 9-10.
  • Łukaszewicz J., Krótki opis historyczny kościołów parochialnych…, Vol. I, Poznań 1858, pp. 191-94.
  • Nowacki J., Archidiecezja Poznańska w granicach historycznych i jej ustrój, Poznań 1964, p. 366.
  • Piła na starej fotografii, text and selection of photographs by M. Leciej and M. Fijałkowski, Piła 1992, p. 15.
  • Słownik geograficzno-historyczny województwa poznańskiego w średniowieczu, part III, z. 3, Poznań 1997, pp. 665-70
  • Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego…, Vol. VIII, ed. B. Chlebowski [et al.], Warsaw 1887, pp. 251-58
  • Usurski M., Okoliczności budowy kościoła pw. Świętej Rodziny w Pile, [in:] “Kronika Wielkopolski”, no. 3(163), 2017, pp. 30-44

Objects data updated by Marcin .

Category: church

Architecture: nieznana

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_30_BK.162875, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_30_BK.63735