WROCŁAW - In Your Pocket

76 FEATURE SILESIAN CHURCHES OF PEACE
Świdnica Peace Church
Świdnica Peace Church (Kościół Pokoju w
Świdnicy) Pl. Pokoju 6, Świdnica, tel. (+48) 74 852
28 14, www.kosciolpokoju.pl. The last of the three
peace churches to be built is the closest to Wrocław,
about 50 kilometres southwest in Świdnica. The problem
is getting there without a car, as there are no direct trains
from Wrocław. If all goes according to plan, the trip can
be done in just over an hour. Be careful though, for not
only are there few trains, if that train is late, you could
be standing on the platform at Jaworzyna Śląska station
(not one of Poland’s finest) for much of the morning or
afternoon. Check the English option at the Polish railways
site (rozklad-pkp.pl) for train times.
Construction at Świdnica took forever, as funds were
short and work on the church continually came to a halt
due to a lack of timber. Only a donation from Hans Heinrich
of Książ (see Książ Castle) - who donated 2000 tree
trunks from the forest surrounding his castle - allowed
work to be completed, in 1657, almost five years after
the emperor had given permission for building work to
begin. Different in layout to the churches at Jawor and
Głogow it was built in the form of a Greek cross, and
when completed it was the largest wooden church in
Europe, and could accommodate 7500 worshippers.
The interior - even for those who have visited Jawor - is
some sight. Like Jawor, there are brightly decorated
galleries to accommodate the masses, and a number
of private boxes for the wealthy. The most impressive is
the domed box of the Hochberg family (who had made
construction of the church possible), topped with the
Hochberg coat of arms. The church’s astonishing altar,
added in 1752 to mark the centenary of the emperor
granting permission for the church’s construction, is one
of the finest in Poland and perhaps the most impressive
of all protestant altars anywhere in Europe. It is the work
of August Gottfried Hoffmann, a Dresden sculptor who
had settled in Świdnica, and its central scene depicts
the baptism of Christ in the River Jordan with the Holy
Spirit watching from above. Statues of Moses and
Aaron flank the scene. The church’s working Baroque
organ, installed in 1666, is original. There are a couple
of buildings in the church’s grounds that should not be
overlooked: the Belfry and the Lutherheim (Luther’s
House, originally a school), both built in 1708. If the
weather’s good, it’s also worth exploring the grounds
to take a look at the tombstones, many of which are
intricately engraved.
Świdnica, though best known as home to one of the
Churches of Peace, is itself well worth a day trip
from Wrocław. A fine medieval town that survived the
ravages of the 20th century more or less intact, it
is in the classic Polish mould, centred on a colourful
Rynek. Once in Świdnica it all comes together. The
town’s main station, Świdnica Miasto, is just a few
meters from the central Rynek, which is dominated
by the 16th century Town Hall that sits in the middle.
There is a reasonably helpful Tourist Information
Office on the far side.
Besides the Church of Peace (which is a ten minute
walk north of the Rynek) the town’s stand-out sight is
the 14th century Sts. Stanisław & Wacław Cathedral, at
103 metres the tallest church in Silesia. Find it on Plac
Jana Pawla II, one block east of the Rynek. Q Open
009:00 - 13:00, 15:00 - 18:00; Sun 15:00 - 18:00. From
November open by prior arrangement only; call at least
one work day in advance. Admission 8/5zł.
Peace Church in Świdnica, Bożena Pytel
Given their role in helping define one of the most important
peace treaties in European history, it is astonishing that so
few people outside Poland and Germany have ever heard of
the Churches of Peace. Indeed, the number of Germans and
Poles aware of the existence and importance of these unique
buildings appears to be fewer and fewer. Even many locals
of Wrocław - the nearest big city to the churches - appear
to be unaware of their status as UNESCO World Heritage
sites (a status gained in 2001).
Though three Churches of Peace were actually built in Silesia
(at Świdnica, Jawor and Głogów), the church at Głogow
burned down in 1758. (It’s worth noting that foul play has never
been entertained as a reason for the destruction of the Głogow
church: it appears to have been a mundane yet tragic fire).
Alas, as with many of Silesia’s hidden treasures, the
Churches of Peace are inordinately difficult to get to without
a car, though both are less than 70km from central Wrocław.
If the mood and the will grabs you however, they come well
recommended. With a car both can be done in a day; if using
Polish railways you will probably need to make two separate
trips from Wrocław. Even the closest church to Wrocław, at
Świdnica, requires a change of train.
But we are getting ahead of ourselves: first, a point of order...
The term Churches of Peace (in Polish Kościoły Pokoju)
does not in this case refer to the pacifist Christian churches
(Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists etc.) often
referred to as the Churches of Peace or Peace Churches. In
fact, the Churches of Peace in Silesia would be better named
Churches of the Peace, the peace in question being the Peace
of Westphalia, the collective name given to two treaties that
put an end to the most destructive and damaging war in early
modern European History, the Thirty Years War.
As such, any guide to the churches needs to be prefaced
with a rundown on the events that led up to the Thirty Years
War, its causes, its course, and its aftermath. We promise
to be as brief as possible.
Like so many wars involving the nations of central Europe,
the key players in the outbreak of the Thirty Years War were
an Emperor who died without an heir (creating a disputed
succession); religion; the authority of the state versus the
authority of the church.
In 1617, by which time it was clear that Matthias (1557-1619),
Holy Roman Emperor, would die having failed to father a child,
the two (Austrian and Spanish) branches of the Hapsburg
family, which had for centuries supplied the Emperor, named
Matthias’s cousin and closest male relative, Ferdinand II
(1578-1637), as his successor. The Spanish king, Phillip III,
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SILESIAN CHURCHES OF PEACE
was keen for Ferdinand (a devout Catholic, raised by Jesuits
and vehemently opposed to the Reformation) to reverse
the policy of religious tolerance and reconciliation that the
Catholic yet relatively liberal Matthias had pursued. During
Matthias’s reign as emperor the Reformation had flourished
in many parts of central Europe, especially in Bohemia and
Silesia, a result of his policy of allowing individual dukedoms
and principalities to pursue religion on their own terms.
Though Matthias was not to die until 1619, Ferdinand became
de facto emperor at the end of 1617. One of his first
edicts was to suspend all protestant church building on land
the Catholic church claimed as its own (which in reality meant
almost all land in the Holy Roman Empire). In retaliation, on
May 23, 1618, a group of protestant Bohemian noblemen
threw Ferdinand’s representatives in Bohemia out of a
second floor window of Prague Castle. They landed in horse
manure, deliberately placed below the window to soften the
blow and harden the humiliation. Known as the Defenestration
of Prague, the event to all intents and purposes started
the Thirty Years War, with Bohemia - and Silesia with it - declaring
open revolt on the Empire.
For the next three decades war raged across much of
Europe, embroiling - at one stage or another - every great
European power: France, Denmark, Sweden, England, Spain,
the Netherlands, Austria, Bohemia and the Ottomans. All allied
themselves with either the protestant armies opposed to
the emperor, or with the Empire itself. Yet this was no simple
religious war. Catholic France, for example, which was attacked
from within by French Hugenots (protestants) in the 1620s,
was opposed to the Holy Roman Empire and to Spain, its rival
for hegemony in southern Europe. Yet it was French intervention
- as well as that of protestant Sweden - that created the
conditions for the end of the war in the mid-1640s. Indeed,
there had been talk of peace since 1637, when Ferdinand III
succeeded his father as Emperor. Having been a military leader
himself, Ferdinand III was appalled at the great human cost of
the war and on taking the throne had immediately sought to
make peace with France and Sweden. The war was to carry
on for another 11 years, however, by which stage Sweden was
the dominant protestant power in Europe and the destruction
of many parts of central and northern Europe total. Even the
peace negotiations lasted an inordinately long time (almost
a year), as the French and Swedish delegates on one side,
and the Hapsburgs on the other, refused to meet face to
face. The French and Swedes were based at Osnabruck, the
Hapsburgs at Munster - 80 kilometres away; a team of couriers
ferried messages between the two. The war only ended
with the Peace of Westphalia, formalised on October 24,
1648, when two separate yet complementary treaties - the
Treaty of Osnabruck and the Treaty of Munster - were signed.
The terms of the peace are far too complex for our purposes.
In one city guide-friendly sentence, we can say that there was
a trade off: what the Hapsburgs lost in territory they gained in
religious influence, and vice-versa. The states that emerged
from the war were handed central control of religious matters:
the brief age of religious autonomy for local princes, dukes
and bishops was at an end. For protestant Silesia - which
after the withdrawal of Swedish forces was once again an
integral part of the Austrian Hapsburg (and Catholic) Empire
- the consequences were manifold.
Primarily because Silesia had been under Swedish
occupation for much of the war, its towns had been
spared great physical damage. The population had not
been so lucky. Some estimates claim that as many as
two-thirds of Silesia’s population was lost to disease
(mainly plague) and starvation during the Thirty Years War.
Jawor Peace Church
Jawor Peace Church (Kościół Pokoju w
Jaworze) Park Pokoju 1, Jawor. Visiting Jawor, 80
kilometres west of Wrocław, is easier said than done. As
with Świdnica it requires a change of train at less than
lovely Jaworzyna Śląska. The church is no more than
five minutes walk from Jawor station, set in a small park
(which until 1972 was the church’s graveyard).
The church, the second to be built, was consecrated on
October 31, 1654. Though the exterior is almost identical
to the doomed church at Głogow; von Sabisch had
learnt from the earlier church’s collapse, and designed
the interior of the Jawor church to be far more stable.
He included raised galleries to create more space for
worshippers: there were originally two (today the second
and fourth). The intermediate galleries (today the first
and third) were added in the 1680s. It is these galleries
- exquisitely decorated with more than 140 scenes from
both the New and Old Testaments - that make Jawor such
an incredible sight. Amazingly, nobody knows for certain
who painted them. They have been credited by some
sources to Georg Flegel, though as Flegel apparently died
in Frankfurt in 1638, that is highly unlikely. More probable
is that one of Flegel’s students - trading on his patron’s
name - executed the paintings. Whoever did them, they
are worth hours of study, telling as they do more or less
the entire bible story from Genesis to Revelations. Look
too for the baptismal font, a gift from wealthy landowner
Georg von Schweintz in 1656, and for the two-storey main
altarpiece, added in 1672 having been cast in Kamienna
Gora. The two splendid statues on either side of the altar
are of Moses and St. John the Baptist.
If you’ve come all this way, it’s also worth taking the time
to see the town’s handsome Rynek too, the centerpiece
of which is the Town Hall, originally built in the mid 14th
century but rebuilt in 1617 and 1846. Its sublime clock
tower - to which the statues of various local heroes seem
to magically cling - survives intact in its original form since
being added in 1397. Q Open 10:00 - 17:00, Sun 12:00
- 17:00. From November open by prior arrangement only,
for groups of at least 5 people (smaller groups must pay
admission for at least 5 people); call at least one day in
advance. Admission 8/4zł.
Peace Church in Jawor, Björn Ehrlich, pl.wikipedia.org
September - December 2012
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