Cerkiew Świętych Cyryla i Metodego, Wrocław

The Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius stands on Sand Island in a former Baroque church of Saint Anne, built for Augustinian nuns between 1686 and 1690. Destroyed by fire in 1945 along with a vast cache of university books, it was restored for Orthodox worship and reopened in 1976.

On Sand Island, this is the Orthodox Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, a parish church that also serves a Ukrainian-language congregation of Saint Peter Mohyla. Its lavish, sculpture-topped façade belongs to Wrocław’s first Baroque church, a style that uses drama and abundant ornament to make a strong impression. The building began as Saint Anne’s Church, constructed from 1686 to 1690 for Augustinian nuns.

It replaced a medieval chapel that had been demolished during the seventeenth century. The church’s identity changed repeatedly. After the secularization of church property in 1810, it passed to a Catholic teachers’ seminary; from 1919 to 1921, it served Wrocław’s Polish minority, and later it went to the Old Catholics.

Its wartime loss was immense. During the 1945 fighting for Festung Breslau, about half a million volumes from the university library were stored here. On the eleventh of May 1945, the books burned and the church interior was gutted.

The Orthodox Church received the ruined building in 1970. Restoration made it usable again in 1976, when the main nave held Wrocław’s first Orthodox service. Inside, the iconostasis includes icons brought from Warsaw and Strwiążyk.