History

The Late Baroque church was erected in the years 1701-1702 in place of a Late Gothic temple that had been completely destroyed during the Thirty Years’ War. Most probably already in the mid- 13th century a hospital chapel, originally made of wood, existed in that place. The present church was built at the initiative of abbot Andreas Adalbert Thiel, the greatest builder of the abbots of Żagań. In 1785 a tower was added. The abbot Benedict Strauch rebuilt the hospital at the temple in 1791.  From 1876 the church was used by the Old Catholics and in 1897 it was taken over by the Sisters of Mercy of St Borromeo. The church underwent renovation works in the 1970s.

Description

The church of the Holy Spirit is located at the intersection of Armii Krajowej and Wojska Polskiego streets. The Late Baroque feature is made of brick, has a single nave and was set on a rectangular floor plan. It includes a rectangular chancel facing the north-west, adjoined with a sacristy on the south-east side and a porch on the north-east side of the nave. The church body, covered with tall gable roofs, boasts a quadrangular tower crowned with a cupola, rising out of the roof plane in its south-eastern part. The nave is covered with a barrel vault with lunettes, similarly as the chancel and the sacristy, whereby in this part the lunettes penetrate so far that they create an impression of a groin vault. The plastered façades are pierced by windows topped with semi-circular arches and accentuated with rhythmically arranged pilasters rising along the entire façade and cornices. The south-east and north-west façades are crowned with two-level gables, volute-shaped in their lower part, enclosed with triangular pediments, partitioned with pilasters and cornices. The main entrance in the front façade is accentuated with a decorative portal made of sandstone, featuring a crest cartouche in the finial. The front façade is additionally adorned with three statues placed in niches, representing allegories of theological virtues: belief, hope and love. The interior includes preserved paintings on the nave vault, a gallery and a Baroque décor - the main altar with a scene of the Pentecost, side altars, a pulpit as well as choir stalls and a cancellum.

Limited access to the historic building. It can be visited upon prior telephone arrangement.

Author of the note Marta Kłaczkowska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Zielona Góra. 14-12-2017

Bibliography

• Garbacz K., Szlakiem zabytkowych miast, Zielona Góra 2005, p. 146;
• Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, p. 442;