History

The brick church was founded in approx. 1370, to replace an earlier wooden temple (destroyed and plundered by the Teutonic Order in 1331), at the request of Casimir the Great. Following a fire in 1447, the church was reconstructed on the basis of surviving walls. In 1580, a tower was added to the existing structure from the north-western side (thanks to donations of the faithful). The church was damaged during a fire in 1645 and thereafter it was reconstructed and extended by two side naves. In 1658, from the south, a chapel of the Passion of Christ was added to the chancel, with Wojciech Prus Chudzicki acting as its founder. In 1925, a sacristy was built, and in 1935 - an outbuilding at the main entrance to the church (west) and a chapel of Our Lady of Fatima, adjacent to the chancel from the north (with Józef Kaban as the designer).

Description

The church is located in the centre of Sieradz, to the north from the Market. It is an oriented, three-nave, hall building, made of brick and not plastered, and its walls are reinforced from the outside with buttresses. A two-bay chancel is equal to the main nave in width, and features a polygonal end section. From the south, it is adjoined by the chapel of the Passion of Christ, with the sacristy behind it. The chapel of Our Lady of Fatima adjoins the northern wall of the chancel. The main nave is three-bays long, and side naves open towards it with arcades supported on round pillars. The main nave features a barrel vault, while side naves - flat ceilings. The chancel is covered with a barrel vault with lunettes and decorative plasterwork of the type found in Lublin and Kalisz. The building is topped with gable roofs, except for the chapel of the Passion of Christ, which is covered by a cupola on pendentives. In 1935, the façade was distorted by an annex. Cannonballs, escutcheons, as well as a piece of masonry referred to as a doorframe from the castle of Sieradz were embedded in the walls. The whole is topped with a gable with Gothic pinnacles. The highest element of the church is a quadrangular tower (north-western corner), which is five-storey high and topped with a Baroque cupola. A distinguishing section of the southern façade is the chapel of the Passion of Christ, covered with a cupola. It is plastered (as the lower, one-storey sacristy adjoining it), and its external walls feature decorative cornices partitioning the storeys. There are pilasters in the corners. Additionally, there is a sgrafitto decoration on the eastern wall depicting Virgin Mary with Child.

Inside, walls and internal ceilings of the church are decorated with paintings (from 1950) and decorative plasterwork (especially in the chancel). The fittings are mostly Baroque (altars, ambo, sculptures, stalls) and dated mainly to the 18th century. Some of the paintings were made for the church by W. Gerson - including the painting of Christ with Cross in the main altar. Also a number of earlier artefacts have been preserved: a Gothic painting of the Holy Trinity, a sculpture of St Anne from the 1st half of the 16th century.

The church is accessible all year round.

compiled by Anna Michalska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Łódź, 08.10.2014.

Bibliography

• Ruszkowski A., Sieradz i okolice, Sieradz 2000
• Gryglewski P., Vetusta Monumenta, Łódź 2002
• Red.Anusik Z., Sieradz, dzieje miasta, Łódź 2014, t. 1
• Sowin U., Sieradz , układ przestrzenny i społeczeństwo miasta w XV- XVI w., Sieradz 1991 KZS, woj. łódzkie, Warszawa 1954, tom II