St. Mary's Church (Polish: Bazylika Mariacka, ) is a Roman Catholic church and co-cathedral located in central Gdańsk, Poland. Completed in 1502 in the Brick Gothic architectural style, it is one of the world's largest brick churches and among the city's most important landmarks, known to its inhabitants as the Crown of Gdańsk (Polish: Korona Gdańska). Together with Oliwa Cathedral, it serves the Archdiocese of Gdańsk.
The groundbreaking ceremony took place in 1343, however, the construction of the present church began in 1379. St. Mary's is an aisled hall church with a transept; its exterior was largely influenced by other churches and temples built across cities or townships in proximity to the Baltic Sea that were part of the Hanseatic League. Between 1536 and 1572, St. Mary's Church was used for Catholic and Lutheran services simultaneously.Heinz Neumayer, „Danzig“, in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie: 36 vols., Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1977–2006, vol. 8 (1981): 'Chlodwig – Dionysius Areopagita', pp. 353–357, here p. 355. . Additionally, a domed side chapel in the Baroque fashion was erected for the Kings of Poland and Catholic worship in the late 17th century.
With a seating capacity of over 25,000 and a volume of approximately , it is one of the three largest brick churches ever constructed, along with San Petronio in Bologna and the Frauenkirche in Munich. It was also the second largest Lutheran church in the world from the 16th century until 1945. The structure is long, and the nave is wide; the total width of the church is . The internal height is estimated at at maximum point.
History
Beginnings, construction (14th–16th centuries)
According to tradition, as early as 1243 a wooden Church of the Assumption existed at this site, built by Swietopelk II, Duke of Pomerania. Official website (translated from Polish)
The foundation stone for the new brick church was placed on 25 March 1343, the feast of the Annunciation. At first a six-span bay basilica with a low turret was built, erected from 1343 to 1360. Parts of the pillars and lower levels of the turret have been preserved from this building.
In 1379 the Danzig architect Heinrich Ungeradin and his team began construction of the present church. Their building shows some differences from St. Mary's Church in Lübeck, sometimes called the mother of all Brick Gothic churches dedicated to St. Mary in Hanseatic cities around the Baltic, and it has some details in common with Gothic brick churches in Flanders and the Netherlands. By 1447 the eastern part of the church was finished, and the tower was raised by two floors in the years 1452–1466. From 1485 the work was continued by Hans Brandt, who supervised the erection of the main nave core. After 1496, the structure was finally finished under Heinrich Haetzl, who supervised the construction of the vaulting.
Reformation (16th century)
In the course of the Reformation most people of Danzig adopted Lutheranism, among them the parishioners of St. Mary's.Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 10. After a short wave of turbulent religious altercations in 1525 and 1526, in which the previous city council was overthrown, the new authorities favored a smooth transition to Lutheran religious practice. In 1529 the first Lutheran sermon was given in St. Mary's. From 1536 — in cooperation with Włocławek's Catholic officials — a Lutheran cleric was permanently employed at St. Mary's and both Lutheran services and Catholic masses were held. The Lutheran minister then began registering the births, deaths, and marriages of the congregation, and the oldest surviving register is that of burials starting in 1537.
In July 1557, King Sigismund II Augustus of Poland granted Danzig the religious privilege of celebrating communion with both bread and wine. Thereafter the City Council ended Catholic masses in all Danzig churches except St. Mary's, where Catholic masses continued until 1572. As part of the smooth transition Lutheran pastors and services at first also continued Catholic traditions, including using precious liturgical garments, such as chasubles. However Catholic traditions gradually were abandoned at St. Mary's. Danzig's Lutheran congregation, like others in northern Europe,Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 5 stored the old liturgical garments, some of which survived. This is why these Lutheran churches have garment collections often comprising a broader range and greater number of old garments than Catholic parishes.
The inventories of St. Mary's reflect usage of Catholic-style accessories in Danzig's early Lutheran services. The inventory of 1552 still mentions a great stock of garments and embroideries. The parishioners of St. Mary's formed a Lutheran congregation which - as part of Lutheran church polity - adopted a church order. A more elaborate church order (constitution) followed in 1612, the Alte Kirchenordnung. The first senior pastor (Erster Pfarrer, pastor primarius) of Danzig's Lutheran state church was Johannes Kittelius, pastor at St. Mary's between 1566 and 1590. The church officially was called Supreme Parish Church of St. Mary's (Oberpfarrkirche St. Marien), indicating its prominent position in the city.
Dispute with Kings of Poland
Due to the anti-Bathory rebellion, in 1577 the Polish King Stephen Báthory imposed the Siege of Danzig (1577). The defense of its political position forced the city to hire mercenaries, who were so costly that the City Council confiscated gold and silver from the inhabitants and from the treasuries of the city and its Lutheran state church.Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 3. Most of the gold and silver utensils of St. Mary's were melted down and minted to pay the mercenaries. An inventory of 1552 still recorded no less than 78 silver gilt chalices, 43 altar crucifixes, 24 great silver figures of saints and the like more. After 1577 most of it was gone. The Danzig rebellion ended in December 1577 with a compromise forcing the city to pay the king the sum of 200,000 florins. But the Polish monarch also recognised Danzig's religious freedom and Lutheran faith.Heinz Neumayer, „Danzig“, in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie: 36 vols., Berlin and New York: de Gruyter, 1977–2006, vol. 8 (1981): 'Chlodwig – Dionysius Areopagita', pp. 353–357, here p. 354. . As a compromise the jurisdiction over Danzig's Lutherans as to marital and sexual matters remained with Włocławek's Catholic officials.
In 1594, the Polish royal court tribunal attempted to restore Catholic services to St. Mary's, but the City Council rejected that approach. But as a compromise, since the Catholic kings of Poland had been the nominal heads of the City since the Second Peace of Thorn (1466), the Council authorised building the Baroque Catholic Royal Chapel. It was erected by Tylman van Gameren (Gamerski) and completed in 1681, near St. Mary's Church, for the king's Catholic service when he visited Gdańsk. With St. Mary's pastor Constantin Schütz (1646–1712) a moderate pietist theology replaced the previously dominant Lutheran orthodoxy.
Partitions, Prussia, Germany (1793–1920)
In the course of the Partitions of Poland the city lost its autonomy in 1793, regaining it for a short period (1807–1814) as a Napoleonic client state, before it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1815. The Prussian government integrated St. Mary's and all the Lutheran state church into the all-Prussian Lutheran church administration. In 1816 the Danzig Consistory was established taking on the tasks and some of the members of the Danzig spiritual ministerium. Danzig's then senior, and prime pastor at St. Mary's (1801–1827), Karl Friedrich Theodor Bertling, became a consistorial councillor in the church body.Heinrich Doering, Die deutschen Kanzelredner des achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhunderts: Nach ihrem Leben und Wirken, Neustadt an der Orla: Wagner, 1830, p. 5. In 1817 the government imposed the union of Reformed and Lutheran congregations within the entire kingdom. First intended to win all these congregations to adopt a unified Protestant confession, the vast Lutheran majority insisted on retaining the Augsburg Confession, thus St. Mary's remained a Lutheran church and congregation, but joined the new umbrella of the Evangelical Church in Prussia in 1821, a regional Protestant church body of united administration but no common confession, comprising mostly Lutheran, but also some Reformed and united Protestant congregations.
In 1820, during Bertling's pastorate, long forgotten chests and cabinets in the sacristy were opened and the first medieval garments and liturgical decorations were rediscovered. In the 1830s more historic garments were found. At that time the congregation did not grasp the richness and rarity of these findings.Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 11. So when Chaplain Franz Johann Joseph Bock, art historian and curator of the then Cologne Archdiocesan Museum, reviewed the discoveries he acquired a number of the best pieces from the congregation. Bock showed them in an exhibition in 1853. After his death some Danzig pieces from his personal collection were sold to London's Victoria and Albert Museum. These and also later sales to private collectors included cloths and vestments made of fabrics from ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt, obtained during the Crusades; as well as renaissance wares from Venice, Florence and Lucca (more than 1000 items altogether).Wtedy to władze pruskie wywiozły z gdańskiego kościoła Marii Panny skarb, na który składały się szaty kościelne z tkanin pochodzących ze starożytnej Mezopotamii i Egiptu (!), a zdobytych w czasach wypraw krzyżowych, średniowieczne dalmatyki i kapy, renesansowe wyroby mistrzów z Wenecji, Florencji i Lukki, naczynia liturgiczne i relikwiarze, w sumie ponad tysiąc arcydzieł. Większość rozprzedano, wyroby ze złota i srebra przetopiono, część haftów... spruto, a złotej nici użyto na galony oficerskie!
In 1861–64 a Sexton named Hinz systematically searched chests, cabinets and other storages in chambers and rooms, also in the tower, and found many more historic liturgical garments. In the 1870s and 1880s the congregation sold more than 200 incomplete pieces, but also intact altar cloths and embroideries to the Berlin Museum of Decorative Arts. The remaining pieces of the garment collection, the so-called Danziger Paramentenschatz (Danzig Parament Treasure),Among the pieces is a Chinese silk cloth with an embroidered blessing for al-Malik al-Nasir Nasir al-Din Muhammad ben Qalawun, an Egyptian sultan. Cf. Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 4. mostly originate from the 150 years between 1350 and 1500.Walter Mannowsky, Der Kirchenschatz von St. Marien in Danzig, Landesverkehrsverband für das Gebiet der Freien Stadt Danzig (ed.), Danzig: Danziger Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1936, p. 9.