Religious sites in Poland
St. Catherine's Church
St Catherine's Church is the oldest church in Gdańsk. The first record dates from 1185, when Prince Sobieslaw I built a wooden church. It was replaced with a stone church in 1227-1239. St. Catherine’s church evolved over centuries and only reached its final shape in the mid-15th century. It was a Protestant church from 1545 until 1945, after which it became a Roman Catholic church. There are several magnificent ...
Founded: 1227-1239 |
Location:
Gdańsk, Poland
Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
The Church of the Visitation of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, otherwise known as St. Mary"s Church, is a church, is one of oldest buildings in Warsaw and one of the few surviving examples of Gothic architecture in the city. St. Mary"s Church stands on the site of an ancient pagan place of worship. The church"s foundation stone was laid by Janusz I the Old, Duke of Masovia and his wife, Danutė of Lithuania ...
Founded: 1409 |
Location:
Warsaw, Poland
St. Vincent's Church
The Church of St. Vincent is the seat of the Greek Catholic cathedral of Wrocław. The church was founded by Duke Henry II the Pious together with a monastery for the Franciscans brought from Prague around 1240, perhaps even as early as 1232 or 1234. Initially it was named for St. James and built in the Romanesque style. Very soon into its construction the crypt became the burial place of its founder, who was killed i ...
Founded: c. 1240 |
Location:
Wrocław, Poland
Church of St. John the Baptist
St. John the Baptist has been located around Malbork since at least the 13th century, having been destroyed and rebuilt on several occasions. The current building was like so many other old ones in the town rebuilt at the end of the Thirteen Year War in 1468, although the current wooden bell tower dates from the 1520s. Always a Catholic church, the interior, most of which dates from extensive conservation work between the ...
Founded: 1468 |
Location:
Malbork, Poland
Jasna Góra Monastery
The Jasna Góra Monastery is the most famous Polish shrine to the Virgin Mary and the country"s greatest place of pilgrimage – for many its spiritual capital. The image of the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, also known as Our Lady of Częstochowa, to which miraculous powers are attributed, is Jasna Góra"s most precious treasure. The site is one of Poland"s official national Histori ...
Founded: 1382 |
Location:
Częstochowa, Poland
St. Florian's Church
The Collegiate Church of St. Florian was built between 1185 and 1216. It was burnt down many times in the 12th, 16th and 17th centuries. Notably, during the Swedish siege of Kraków, General Stefan Czarniecki ordered the city"s suburbs burned down. However, during the city-wide fire which consumed a considerable part of Kraków in 1528, the church – containing St. Florian"s relics – survi ...
Founded: 1185-1216 |
Location:
Kraków, Poland
St. Dorothea's Church
The Church of Sts. Dorothea, Wenceslaus, and Stanislaus was founded to commemorate the signing of a treaty between Casimir III the Great of Poland and Charles IV, Holy Roman Emperor. The patrons of the church represented Bohemia, Poland, and Silesia: the coat of arms of the three realms were placed under the windows on the outside of the apse. The church was built under the supervision of the Augustinian hermits on a plot ...
Founded: c. 1240 |
Location:
Wrocław, Poland
St Nicholas' Church
The Dominican Church of St. Nicholas is one of the oldest churches in Gdansk. Its history begins in the 12th century. It was built at the junction of two important trade routes: the ancient mercantile path (via mercatorum) and the route leading from the royal castle of Gdansk’s estate in Pomerania. On January 22, 1227, the Pomeranian prince Svatopluk entrusted the Church of St. Nicholas to the Dominicans, who had j ...
Founded: 1348-90 |
Location:
Gdańsk, Poland
St. Bridget's Church
St. Bridget's Church was built in the mid-1300s, initially as St. Magdalene’s Chapel, on the location of the legendary appearance of the Holiest Virgin. In 1374, the funeral procession carrying the remains of the founder of the Holiest Saviour Convent, Bridget of Sweden, which was travelling from Rome to Vadstena in Sweden, made a stop in Gda?sk. The residents of Gda?sk paid great homage to the deceased, whose sarco ...
Founded: c. 1350 |
Location:
Gdańsk, Poland
St. Lawrence's Chapel
St. Lawrence"s Chapel is located on the peak of Śnieżka, the highest peak of the Karkonosze Mountains, located around 5.3 kilometres west of the centre of Karpacz. The construction of the chapel was founded by Count Christof Leopold von Schaffgotsch, as a votive offering to the confiscated wealth of his father. The building of the chapel on Śnieżka was done so to enforce his right to the mountain, whi ...
Founded: 1665 |
Location:
Karpacz, Poland
Skalka
Church of St Michael the Archangel and St Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr and Pauline Fathers Monastery, Skałka, which means 'a small rock' in Polish, is a small outcrop in Kraków where the Bishop of Kraków saint Stanislaus of Szczepanów was slain by order of Polish king Bolesław II the Bold in 1079. This action resulted in the king"s exile and the eventual canonization of the sl ...
Founded: 14th century |
Location:
Kraków, Poland
Oliwa Cathedral
Oliwa Cathedral is dedicated to The Holy Trinity, Blessed Virgin Mary and St Bernard. The first Cistercian monastery on the site was founded by Sambor I of Gdánsk, Duke of Pomerania, in 1186. The first Romanesque oratory was burnt down in 1224 during the pagan Prussians crusade. It was rebuilt in 1234-1236, but destroyed again by Prussian crusade. In 1350 fire that was caused by chimney soot excess completely cons ...
Founded: 1578-1594 |
Location:
Gdańsk, Poland
Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary is the first Carmelite Church in Kraków, hence the name of the street on which it stands. According to legend, the earliest church on the same site was founded in the 11th century by Duke Władysław I Herman after a vision led him to this spot northwest of the city walls, where he found blooming violets in sand which cured him of a disfiguring case of scu ...
Founded: 1679 |
Location:
Kraków, Poland
Archcathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul
The Archcathedral Basilica of St. Peter and St. Paul in Poznań is one of the oldest churches in Poland and the oldest Polish cathedral, dating from the 10th century. It stands on the island of Ostrów Tumski north-east of the city centre. The cathedral was originally built in the second half of the 10th century within the fortified settlement of Poznań, which stood on what is now called Ostrów Tumski ('Cathedral Islan ...
Founded: 968 AD |
Location:
Poznań, Poland
St. Martin & Nicholas Cathedral
Bydgoszcz"s oldest remaining church is a truly exquisite example of the so-called Vistulan Gothic style, and is, in a word, breathtaking. Parts of the building date back to middle of the 15th century, and the exterior is worthy of more plaudits than many comparable churches, but what really sets this church apart from the rest is its glorious interior. Those who"ve visited St. Mary"s Basilica in Krak&oacut ...
Founded: 15th century |
Location:
Bydgoszcz, Poland
Tyniec Abbey
Tyniec Benedictine abbey was founded by King Casimir the Restorer probably around 1044. Casimir decided to rebuild the newly established Kingdom of Poland, after a Pagan rebellion and a disastrous Czech raid of Duke Bretislaus I (1039). The Benedictines, invited to Tyniec by the King, were tasked with restoring order as well as cementing the position of the State and the Church. First Tyniec Abbot was Aaron, who became th ...
Founded: c. 1044 |
Location:
Kraków, Poland
Szczecin Cathedral
The Cathedral Basilica of St. James the Apostle was built by the citizens of the Szczecin city and modeled after the Church of St. Mary in Lübeck. It is the largest church in Pomerania and for many years after the reformation was part of the Pomeranian Evangelical Church, but since World War II and the handing over of Stettin to Poland it has been rebuilt as a Roman Catholic cathedral. The church was established in ...
Founded: 1187 |
Location:
Szczecin, Poland
St. James's Church
St. James"s church (often mistakenly called St Jacob"s), a basilica from the 14th century, with monumental wall paintings and Gothic stalls. The unique character of the church is determined by a myriad of decorations, detail styles and multicolour glazed brick. In the New Market Square, the church can be entered through the Gothic gate with a pillar and the Baroque figure of St. James, the patron.
Founded: 14th century |
Location:
Toruń, Poland
Lancut Synagogue
The Łańcut Synagogue is a rare surviving example of the vaulted synagogues with a bimah-tower, that were built throughout the Polish lands in masonry from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries. The synagogue is a simple Baroque, masonry building with a vestibule and side room, main hall and a women"s balcony above the vestibule reached by an exterior staircase. The windows of the main hall are unusu ...
Founded: 1761 |
Location:
Łańcut, Poland
St. James the Elder Church
The cathedral church of St. James the Elder is situated within the old quarter next to the city walls and in the past it could fulfil a defensive function. It was built in stages from 1380 until 1445 and finally completed in its present shape during the early 17th c. The building was erected on the rectangular plan of ceramic bricks, with nave and two aisles, hall type, without separate presbytery. Late Gothic vaulting is ...
Founded: 1380-1445 |
Location:
Olsztyn, Poland