In addition, it has a significant historical value. The Fara Church in Piotrków was one of the most important churches of the Republic of Poland between the 15th and 17th centuries. It was here that synods were held, as well as other meetings attended by clergy and magnates from all over the country. It also played an important role when Piotrków became the seat of the Crown Tribunal.

History

According to archival sources, the first parish church on this site was built around 1300. It was probably wooden. Funds for the construction of a brick temple were provided by King Casimir III the Great, but the church was not built until around 1400.

All that remains from the 14th century church is the nave with its original height, as well as a church porch from the west, as well as a tower. The nave has retained its height, even though the original wooden ceiling has been replaced. From the east, the nave was adjoined by a shorter and lower chancel.

In 1435, a meeting of the clergy was held in Piotrków. It was chaired by the Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki. In 1438, the Seym was also convened in Piotrków for the first time. From then on, the Fara Church hosted events attended by the most important church dignitaries and high-ranking lay people. In 1445, the inhabitants of Piotrków, grateful to the king for holding important state meetings in their town, initiated a custom of ringing the bells of the Farna Church nine times every day to honour the memory of the knights killed at the Battle of Varna in 1444.

The first synod in Piotrków Trybunalski was held in 1456. It was chaired by the Archbishop Wojciech Wężyk.

In 1467, Stanisław Ostoya donated funds for the construction of a chapel. The chapel was built next to the southern wall of the nave and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. Leonard, St. Catherine, St. Margaret and St. Ursula (in 1658, also to the Holy Cross).

In the first quarter of the 16th century, the chancel was extended eastwards by 5 metres. Funds for that purpose were provided by Queen Bona. At that time, both the chancel and the nave were covered with higher vaults – barrel vaults with lunettes, adorned with stellar ribs.

Originally, the chancel had been lower, covered with a flat ceiling, as evidenced by the traces of the old gable with brick mullions. Traces of the pre-existing wooden ceiling can also be found in the attic, where some mounting holes have been preserved.

After the Seyms were relocated to Warsaw, Piotrków did not lose its importance. In 1578, the Crown Tribunal was established here – the highest court of the Commonwealth of Poland. The Fara Church became a place where morning church services were held for the deputies of the Crown Tribunal, who were required to attend them before each session of the Tribunal. In addition, the Fara Church was where the so-called general voting took place, i.e. the deputies elected by nobility at regional assemblies (sejmik) were approved by voting.

At that time, one of the rooms of the enormous brick seven-storey parish tower served as an archive. In the room above the porch, the most valuable city documents were kept: Sejm books, tribunal books and land registers. The last synod held in Piotrków took place on 22 May 1628, convened by Primate Jan Wężyk.

In 1654, a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist was added from the south (it was demolished following a fire in 1786). Before 1657, the tower received a new, Baroque cupola (on an illustration painted by Pufendorf, the church already has the present-day cupolas with a lantern). At the height of the last storey, there are arcaded blendes, while on the lower storeys there are embrasures and pointed-arch windows, as well as full-arched windows.

In 1674, the construction of a chapel began at the northern wall of the main nave. The chapel was dedicated to St. Józef (now to Our Lady of Czestochowa) and was funded by Elżbieta and Krzysztof Amend – burghers from Piotrków.

In 1686, the chapel of the Holy Cross was redecorated in the Baroque style. The vaults of both the chapels were embellished with stucco decorations, which made them look similar.

In 1731, a fire destroyed the cupola on the tower of the Farna Church, but the walls of the tower were in danger of collapse too. The renovation was undertaken immediately under the supervision of the parish priest Władysław Rychłowski. During that renovation, the coat of arms of prelate Rychłowski – Samson was placed on the repaired cupola of the tower.

In 1786, the bells melted in another fire, which also destroyed the cupola of the tower and its walls, as well as the roof of the chapel of St. John the Baptist. The subsequent renovation was completed in 1788 and three new bells were hung in the tower. The chapel could not be saved. The costs of its renovation were too high and it was decided to pull it down.

In 1860, the leaking roofs and domes of the chapels were repaired, the chapel of the Holy Cross was thoroughly renovated and a sandstone floor was laid in the nave.

Between 1872 and 1878, the church was remodelled according to a design created by the architect Ignacy Markiewicz. In order to enlarge the church, the sacristy which had been added to the original chancel was demolished and a new one was added to the southern wall of the chancel.

In the northern wall of the chancel, a window was pierced to illuminate the interior. The level of the chancel floor was lowered and a new, brick choir gallery was built. In the chancel, the entrance arcades to the side chapels were extended. The walls of the tower were renovated, portals were built and a communication turret was erected at the southern wall of the tower. The interior reverted to the Gothic style.

In 1936, the flooring was replaced and levelled in the entire church. Stone tiles were replaced with ceramic ones. The old sandstone floor was retained only in the porch under the tower.

In 1939, a crack appeared on the tower, which was strengthened and secured with cement injections. During the Second World War, the Germans used the tower as an observation point.

In recent years, conservation works have been carried out to repair the brick face of the church tower, as well as the stepped gable, buttresses and pinnacles, and the first stage of the foundation strengthening procedure has been completed.

Description

The church is situated within the Old Town, to the south-east of the Tribunal Square. It stands on a fenced land plot occupying the quarter delimited by the following streets: Krakowskie Przedmieście, Starowarszawska, Zamurowa and Garncarska. The clergy house and the parish office are situated on the same plot. The Fara Church is surrounded by the former cemetery. The church is oriented. It represents the Gothic style and has Baroque chapels, a Baroque tower cupola as well as Baroque Revival alterations.

The four-bay chancel is built on an elongated rectangular plan, terminated semi-hexagonally from the east. Along the side walls of the chancel, one-storey annexes were erected on rectangular plans. The southern annex houses the sacristy and the northern one - a funeral chapel. The two-bay nave follows the floor plan of a square-like rectangle, with the western bay containing the choir gallery. From the west, the nave is adjoined by a tower on a rectangular floor plan. At the southern wall of the tower, there is a communication turret, built on a square plan, with truncated corners. In addition, the nave is adjoined by the chapel of the Holy Cross (from the south) and of Our Lady of Częstochowa (from the north). Both follow a floor plan of a rectangle. The axis of the chancel was moved slightly northwards in relation to the axis of the nave.

The church is one-nave with a lower chancel. The chancel and the nave are covered with separate, high, gable roofs. The wall terminating the chancel from the east is covered with three roof surfaces. A stepped gable rises above the roofs, at the height of the rood beam. The stepped gable contains elongated vertical blendes separated by pilaster strips. In the finial, there is a ridge turret. The western tower is topped with a cupola. In the lower part, the cupola is quadrilateral, in the upper part it turns into an octagon, on which an openwork gallery with a balcony is based. In the finial, there is an octagonal, pear-shaped dome with a metal cross. Above the chapels, there are domes topped with openwork lanterns, the latter also being covered with domes. There is a metal cross over each of the chapels. The communication turret has an eight-faced roof, at a slight sloping angle, above which there is a lantern with blendes. The angular cupola of the lantern is surmounted by a metal cross. The annexes are covered with shed roofs with stepped gables from the east.

The building was made of brick, mostly laid in the Polish pattern. The nave, the chancel and the tower are buttressed. The walls of the nave and of the chancel are plastered. The buttresses and the outer walls of the western tower are not coated with plaster, and neither are the decorative, stepped gables with plastered blendes. In the wall of the tower, glazed brick heads have been preserved. The chancel and the nave are covered with barrel vaults with lunettes decorated with stellar ribs. In the chapels, there are domes with a lantern. In the porch under the tower, there is cross-rib vaulting. The annexes are covered with flat ceilings.

Above the chancel and the nave, there is a roof truss of the collar beam type, assembled using two queen posts and connected with an orchid rafter. The chancel is covered with overlapping ceramic tiles. The nave is clad with S-shaped roof tiles. The side chapels, the cupola of the tower, the communication turrets and the annexes are clad with sheet metal.

The chancel, the nave and the annexes have ceramic floors consisting of black and white squares arranged into a mosaic. In the porch, there are rectangular stone tiles.

The stairs leading to the choir gallery are metal, spiral with a core. The brick stairs of the communication turret are one-flight, spiral with a core. In the tower, there are wooden, quarter-turn, one-flight stairs.

The window openings of the chancel and of the nave are plastered on both sides, splayed, pointed-arch. From outside, they are framed with a wide, flat surround. The metal windows are permanently fixed, single, multi-pane with a transom light filled with a four-leaf and fish bladder motif. The multi-level, central windows of the chancel are glazed with stained glass. The window openings of the chapels are rectangular on both sides, topped with a full arch. Their windows are identical to those in the nave and the chancel. The window openings in the tower are as follows: on the second storey, rectangular and flat-headed; on the 5th storey - rectangular, topped with a pointed arch, with richly profiled jambs; on the 6th storey - rectangular openings topped with a segmental arch; above, there are rectangular, full-arched openings, with wooden blinds in the windows. In the annexes, there are rectangular openings topped with a full arch, with metal, single windows, with a tiltable transom light. Both communication turrets are rectangular, full-arched, with metal, permanently fixed, single windows. In the porch under the tower, there are two door portals. The openings are rectangular, ogee-arched, plastered, with richly profiled jambs. The doors are wooden, frame-panelled, two-wing, with a transom light. The transom light is ogee-arched, divided into three sections, each with a four-leaf.

Elevations:

The walls of the chancel and of the nave are buttressed and topped with a profiled cornice. In the eastern elevation, between the buttresses, there are three blind niches with discernible bricked-up windows. The middle one is topped with a segmental arch, the side ones - with a full arch. The elevations of the chapels are smoothly plastered and decorated with cornices. The corners of the chapel of the Holy Cross are supported by buttresses. Each elevation of the Chapel of Our Lady of Częstochowa is highlighted with pilasters. On the northern wall, there are pilasters with Ionic heads.

The elevations of the tower are smooth, brick, with one central axis on each storey. The portals are ogee-arched. Other openings are rectangular and topped with a full arch. At the height of the top storey, a strip of rectangular blinds runs across the elevations, which are topped with a full arch. On the central axis, there is a window. The front wall of the tower is framed by buttresses. In the northern buttress, there is a recess on a semicircular plan with a sculpture of St. John of Nepomuk. The communication turret, at the southern buttress of the tower, is decorated with blendes - rectangular, flat-headed or rectangular and topped with a pointed arch. It is also decorated with panels in profiled frames. A corbelled frieze runs under the cornice.

The noteworthy features inside the church include the strongly elongated chancel, opening into the nave with a pointed-arch arcade positioned slightly northwards on the axis of the nave. The passages to the side chapels are delimited by wide arcades. In the passage leading to the porch under the tower, there is an arcade topped with a pointed arch. On the western wall, there is a brick choir gallery supported by three arcades. The domes of the side chapels are decorated with 17th-century stuccoes. The two central windows of the chancel are glazed with stained glass from 1923. The Classicist altar of St. Dormition of the Mother of God and St. Jacob, founded in 1808, was remodelled in 1873 according to a design created by the architect Ignacy Markiewicz. In its central part, there is the preserved late Gothic painting of the Dormition of the Mother of God from the first decade of the 16th century, brought to Piotrków by Queen Bona. It represents the style of prevailing in Lesser Poland. On the sliding panel of the altar, there is a picture of St. Jacob and in the finial of Ecce Homo – both painted by Rafał Hadziewicz in 1875. On the sides of the altar, there are statues of holy bishops. The church is also equipped with four side altars. Two of them come from 1776 and were donated by burghers from Piotrków - Antoni and Kunegunda Maruszewski. One is dedicated to St. Anthony (with paintings by Rafał Hadziewicz) and the other is dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. The latter contains a painting of Empress Cunegunda in the finial.

The next altar, dating from 1758, was donated by the parish priest Antoni Klichowski. In its central part, there is a 17th-century crucifix flanked by sculptures of the Mother of God and Mary Magdalene. The fourth altar is dedicated to Our Lady of Częstochowa and was donated in 1780 by Szymon Żuchowski - a parish priest from Będków. In the central part of the altar, there is a painting of the Mother of God with the Child (painted in 1910). On the sliding panel, there is a painting of the Holy Family. At the columns, there are sculptures of St. Anne and St. Simon.

Other noteworthy items include an interesting baptismal font from 1641, Baroque stalls from the first half of the 19th century, relocated from the monastery of the Franciscans of Piotrków, as well as a Baroque pulpit from the early 18th century.

The polychrome of the church dates from 1966 and relates to the topic of the 1000th anniversary of the baptism of Poland.

The church porch is open to the public every day. The church can be visited inside during services.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc – Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź. 13 June 2016

Bibliography

• Głowacki K., Kościół farny św. Jakuba w Piotrkowie Trybunalskim, Piotrków Trybunalski 1980,
• Dzieje Piotrkowska Trybunalskiego, edited by Bohdan Baranowski, Łódź 1989,
• Wolska-Rój A., record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction for the Parish Church of St. Jacob in Piotrków Trybunalski, Regional Monuments Inspector of Piotrków Trybunalski, 1991, Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź,