Jesuit Church, Warsaw

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Building information
Church of the Gracious Mother of God
Jesuit Church, rebuilt after World War II.
Town	Warsaw
Country	Poland
Architect	Jan Frankiewicz
Client	Society of Jesus
Construction start date	1609
Completion date	1626
Date demolished	1944
Style	Polish Mannerism

Mannerist attic

Jesuit Church (Polish: Kościół Jezuitów), otherwise the Church of the Gracious Mother of God (Kościół Matki Bożej Łaskawej) is an ornate church in Warsaw, Poland. Immediately adjacent to St. John's Cathedral, it is one of the most notable Mannerist churches in Poland's capital. Its beautiful slender tower may be seen from the Old Town Market Place.

1 History
2 Interior
3 References
4 Images
5 External links
6 See also

[edit] History

The Jesuit Church was founded by King Sigismund III Vasa and Podkomorzy Andrzej Bobola (the Old) at Piotr Skarga's initiative, in 1609, for the Jesuits. The main building was constructed between 1609 and 1626 in the Polish Mannerist style by Jan Frankiewicz.^[1]

In 1627 the church was encompassed with three chapels,^[2] and in 1635 Urszula Mayerin, a great supporter of the Society of Jesus, was buried within. Mayerin funded a silver tabernacle for the church^[3]. She was also King Sigismund III's mistress, and was politically influential. Her grave was plundered and destroyed by the Swedes and Brandenburg Germans, in the 1650s, during the Deluge.^[3]

The magnificent pure-silver main altar, erected by Cardinal Charles Ferdinand Vasa in the 1640s, was also stolen during the Deluge.^[4]

In later years the building became more and more splendid, with rich baroque furnishings and marble altars and floors. Two more chapels were added.

During World War II, after the Germans suppressed the Warsaw Uprising, they razed the Jesuit Church to the ground.^[5]^[6]^[7]^[8] All that remained of the four-hundred-year-old edifice was a great pile of rubble.^[5]^[6] Between the 1950s and 1973, the church was rebuilt in a simplified architectural style.

[edit] Interior

The facade is Mannerist, although the interior is completely modern, because very few of the original furnishings of the church were preserved. Inside, preserved fragments of a brilliant tomb monument of Jan Tarło carved by Jan Jerzy Plersch^[9] in white and black marble in 1753, together with reconstructed epitaphs of Sarbiewski, Konarski, Kopczyński and Kiliński are displayed. A painting of Our Lady of Grace brought to Poland in 1651 by bishop Juan de Torres as a gift from Pope Innocent X is also displayed, along with a preserved wooden crucifix from 1383.^[2]