The Church of the Holy Spirit in Warsaw is a church at 3 Długa Street, in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

New Town New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. The church was originally built in the

Gothic style Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

alongside a hospital in the 14th century. It was probably the first hospital of this type in the Mazovian region and was located just outside the walls of the

Warsaw Old Town Warsaw Old Town ( pl, Stare Miasto, italic=yes and colloquially as ''Starówka'') is the oldest part of Warsaw, the capital city of Poland. It is bounded by the ''Wybrzeże Gdańskie'' (Gdańsk Boulevards), along with the bank of the Vistula river, ...

. It was founded by Janusz the Elder,

Duke of Warsaw Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16th ...

, and handed over to the city in 1388.

History

With the existing small church of the Holy Spirit, the citizens of Warsaw demanded a new hospital and it was set up for this purpose supposedly by Mikołaj Panczatka, who donated the church his property. From 1425 it was a hostel for the poor and in 1473 a chapel, temporary accommodation for guests or pilgrims, and a monastery were added. The parish priest was also the manager of the hospital at that time. The first pastor of the church, known by name, was Jędrzej Pronobis in 1473. Most of the funding received (from nobles and kings such as

Sigismund I the Old Sigismund I the Old ( pl, Zygmunt I Stary, lt, Žygimantas II Senasis; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the ...

and

Bona Sforza Bona Sforza d'Aragona (2 February 1494 – 19 November 1557) was Queen of Poland and Grand Duchess of Lithuania as the second wife of Sigismund I the Old, and Duchess of Bari and Rossano by her own right. She was a surviving member of ...

) were given to the hospital. Documents also mention parish priests: John Szeliga (1574), Wojciech Pruszczyński (1579) and Wojciech Badowski (1633). In 1629 the bishop of Poznań,

Maciej Łubieński Maciej Łubieński (1572 in Łubna – 1652 in Łowicz), of Pomian coat of arms, was a primate of Poland, archbishop of Gniezno, bishop of Poznań, bishop of Kujawy and interrex in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. He was educated in Sieradz ...

, placed it within the Holy Trinity parish (''Parafia Świętej Trójcy na Solcu''), and its buildings were completed, at the behest of the king, as part of the Birgittine Order. In 1579, the brothers of the nearby church of

St George Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...

were moved to the school at the Church of the Holy Spirit. During the Swedish invasion (commonly referred to as ''The Deluge'') the church fell into ruin and subsequently burnt down, but the magistrate's resolution from 1664 ensured that the hospital had an income. In 1665, in honour of the defence of Warsaw, the magistrate promised the priests of the Pauline order a new temple of worship. In 1699 the foundation stone was laid for the new church, which was built from 1707 to 1717 in the

Baroque style The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

by architects Józef Piola and Józef Szymon Bellotti. A friend of King Augustus the Strong, the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Chełm Rybiński was invited for the ceremonial laying of the foundation stone, who set aside 40,000 Polish złotys for the building purposes. The construction of the church continued all the way until 1746, when the chapel, dedicated to Our Lady of Częstochowa, was finally completed. In 1708, Warsaw suffered from an outbreak of the Great Northern War plague. During this time, the Pauline brothers were said to have organised the first pilgrimage from Warsaw to the

Jasna Góra monastery The Jasna Góra Monastery ( pl, Jasna Góra , ''Luminous Mount'', hu, Fényes Hegy, lat, Clarus Mons) in Częstochowa, Poland, is a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary and one of the country's places of pilgrimage. The image of the Black Mad ...

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admin ...

to pray to the

Virgin Mary Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother o ...

to save them from the disease. Ever since, the pilgrimage has become an important aspect of Polish culture and continues to this day. By 1800 there were nine priests as well as two German professors and four students studying theology in the monastery. In January 1807 the army of

Napoléon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...

used the monastery as army barracks. After the war, the monastery was briefly regained (the abbot at the time was Teodor Fortuński), however in 1819 the Tsarist administration ordered the priests to be removed from Warsaw to

and that the church was to be administered by the German Brotherhood of St. Benno. Successive rectors were priests of German origin including Lüdicke, Amman, Gelderland, and Ballach. In 1825 the monastery opened the main

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

as a theological faculty and later was transferred to the

Franciscan Order , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

. The remaining part of the monastery was rented as apartments. After the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

in 1863, a statue of the

by Czajkowski was placed in front of the church. In 1944, during the infamous

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...

, the church was almost completely destroyed by the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

; the interior of the church and vaulting burnt down with only the main altar surviving. In 1947, the Polish Primate Cardinal Hlond, returned the church to the administration of the Pauline Order and the church was rebuilt in 1956 in the same form as it was before

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Image:Koscol ducha Nowomiejska.png, A Michał Starkman woodcut from around 1855 Image:Warszawa, kosciol sw. Ducha, wnetrze.jpg, The church's interior Image:Kościół św. Ducha Warszawa.jpg, A view of the church from Mostowa Street

External links

{{Commonscat, Holy Spirit church in Warsaw
Official site of the Paulini Kościół Św.Ducha church
Roman Catholic churches in Warsaw 18th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Poland Roman Catholic churches completed in 1746