The structure is the dominant feature in the landscape of the town.

History

The first mention of the church dates back to 1283. The tower, reaching the height of the arcaded frieze, and a fragment of the chancel wall date back probably to the same period. In the 14th century, a three-nave body with chapels from the south and north and the present chancel with a sacristy were built, and the tower was extended upwards. The church was damaged in the Thirteen Years' War. It was presumably reconstructed by 1496; a new roof covered the naves and the eastern gable was elevated. In 1556-1589, the church was in Protestant hands. In 1597-1599, the Starost of Puck, Ernest Wejher, founded a chapel. Probably about 1600, a vault was built in the south chapel of the Holy Cross, and about 1645, priest Mateusz Judycki renovated and equipped the chapel, which was since called the Judycki chapel. In 1645, the chancel was elevated and vaulted. In 1896, the chapel of St Anna was converted, and in 1897, vaults were added in the chapel and in the naves.

Description

The church is located in the northern part of the town, between the buildings of the northern frontage of Wolności Square (the former market square) and the area adjacent to the port and the bay. The plot has an irregular plan and is defined by Judyckiego, Morska, and Marynarska streets, and surrounded by a wall. Apart from the church, within the area there was also a church graveyard (not preserved), and there are two single-storey parish buildings on the north-east side of the church. This Gothic church is made of brick and oriented. It is a hall, three-nave and five-bay church, set on a rectangular floor plan. The chancel is two-bay, with a three-sided termination. At the northern wall of the chancel, there is a sacristy. A tower with a porch on the ground floor level rises on the west. On both sides of the tower, at the extension of the side naves, there are two two-bay chapels: chapel of the Wejher family and baptismal chapel. At the northern wall of the church, there is a chapel of St Anna, and at the southern wall there are the chapel of Judycki and a neo-Gothic porch. The building consists of a nave body, a lower and narrower chancel, a tower, and annexes (the chapels, the sacristy and the southern porch). The body and the chancel are covered with gable roofs, the tower is covered with a hip roof, and the annexes with gable roofs and mono-pitched roofs. The gables of the eastern body (1496) and the chapel of Judycki (the second half of the 14th century) and St Anna (1896) are pinnacled, with lesenes and blind windows. The façades are generally plain, with stepped buttresses and pointed-arch windows and blind windows. The tower features an arcade frieze. Portals are pointed-arch and stepped or segmental. The interior of the church nave is divided with octagonal piers that pass into pointed-arch, stepped arcades. The vaults are: stellar with a leading rib in the chancel (1645), neo-Gothic stellar in the chapel of St Anna and in the baptismal chapel (1897), stellar with a quatrefoil motif incorporated in the bay in the chapel of Wejher and Judycki (about 1600), barrel with lunettes in the sacristy, and neo-Gothic groin in the porch under the tower. The southern porch features a wooden ceiling. In the northern part of the northern nave, there is a fragment of a double barrel vault, probably from the 17th century. A Gothic king post roof truss over the naves is from 1496, and over the chancel - from 1645.

Décor and fittings of the church feature: Classicist wall paintings on the northern side of the eastern pier that show St Peter and Paul and the Blessed Virgin Mary Immaculately Conceived (about 1800), a Classicist main altarpiece, and in the end section of side naves (about 1800), an altarpiece from the Early Baroque in the chapel of Judycki (about 1640, half of the 18th century), a Mannerist altarpiece in the chapel of the Wejher family (1623), with a painting by H. Han titled Crucifixion (1623), a neo-Baroque altarpiece in the chapel of St Anna (19th century), a Classicist pulpit (about 1800), a Baroque baptismal font ensemble (1697), a late-Romanesque stoup (13th century?), and a Gothic, late-Baroque grillwork in the chapel of Wejher (1637).

The church is open to visitors.

compiled by Beata Dygulska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 12-06-2015.

Bibliography

• Heise J., Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmaeler der Provinz Westpreussen, Pommerellen, H. 3, der Kreise Neustadt, Danzig 1884-1887, str. 57;
• Historia Pucka, red. A. Grotha, Gdańsk 1998;
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, t. V: Województwo gdańskie, z. 2: Puck, Żarnowiec i okolice, oprac. T. Chrzanowski, M. Kornecki, B. Rol, I. Strzelecka, Warszawa1989, str. 34-43;
• Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne Pucka, t. I - II, oprac. I. Dmochowska, A. Kołecki, A. Wołosewicz, A. Stefanowicz, Gdańsk 1970;
• Studium historyczno-urbanistyczne Pucka, t. I - III, oprac. H. Domańska, A. Kołecki, A. Wołosewicz, Gdańsk 1976;