St. Martin's Church in Poznan

St. Martin's Church in Poznan

It is located at St. Martin Street. The first, probably wooden church, stood in this place as early as the 13th century, and the settlement of St. Martin adopted its name as well as the street in the 18th century. In the middle of the 16th century a brick church in late Gothic style was erected in this place, without any towers, with a stellar vault. It was pulled down in the 17th century. Later constructions and alterations were demolished by continuous wars sweeping through this area of fights and battles. At the end of the 19th century and during the first three decades of the 20th century the church was still going through some redesigning and modernization and eventually in 1939 it was 35m long and 30m wide. Inside there were 7 altars. The main one, representing St. Martin, was a 16th-century work of art. The stained glass window above the organ represented St. Martin on horseback, giving away his coat to a poor man. The church was closed in 1941 and turned into a storehouse.

During the war it was almost completely demolished. Reconstructed between 1950-1954, it regained its late Gothic shape of a nave and 2 aisles, and a Gothic stellar vault. Inside, one can admire its lancet arch windows and portal, and some arcaded friezes. In 1957 polychrome frescos were painted directly on the bricks, a design by Wacław Taranczewski. In the main altar a late Gothic triptych of Swierzawa, made in 1498 by an anonymous Silesian artist, can be seen. In the central part of the triptych there are the figures of the Holy Virgin with the Child, St. John the Baptist and St. Catherine. In the altar finial, beneath the openwork baldachin, there are two small figures of St. Roch and St. Sebastian and a figure of an unknown bishop as well. In the lower part, called predella, there are 19th-century figures of St. Peter and St. Paul. On the sides of the altar there are scenes of the martyrdom of St. John the Baptist (St. John's Beheading, Salome standing in front of Herod and Herodias with St. John's head in a bowl) and St. Catharine (St. Catherine's beheading and St. Catherine's entombing). The outer parts of the sides of the triptych are covered with paintings representing scenes from the life of St. Catherine. The tabernacle in thealter was made in 1954. The stained glass windows were designed in 1960 by Jan Piasecki. Above the entrance to the church there is a low relief from 1953 representing St. Martin on horseback.

In 1911 the Holy Virgin of Lourdes grotto was built and it was enlarged to its present state in 1932. One year later a plaque memorializing the 15th anniversary of the beginning of Great Poland's uprising was placed there. In a wooden bell tower there are 3 bells: a Renaissance St. Martin from 1563, St. Andrew from 1718 and the most splendid - Holy Virgin from 1747. On a square at the presbytery there is a pedestal with an inscription reminding us that in 1859 a monument to Adam Mickiewicz was erected there. In 1965 the church had a new 34-register organ installed and in 1966 it got a new marble floor.