Kościół Bożego Ciała, Gdańsk

Kościół Bożego Ciała is a Polish Catholic parish church in central Gdańsk. Its dedication is to the Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ. Notice the building’s changing mass and the joins between its parts.

Its Gothic manner belongs to the medieval tradition of soaring sacred buildings. The church began within a Catholic hospital complex: it cared for people with leprosy before becoming a refuge for elderly, ill, and solitary residents. A church here appears in written records from 1385, and the hospital chapel was enlarged late in the medieval era.

After the siege of 1577, reconstruction created the present church, including its main east-to-west nave. From 1592 it served a Lutheran parish, which later added a baroque crosswise nave along the north side. An outdoor pulpit made in 1707 carried apostle figures and a pelican representing Christ; it now stands indoors.

The church also once held a rococo organ with thirty-four stops. War damage stripped away the organ, bells, clock mechanism, stained glass, and the contents of underground crypts. Since 1974, this church and its rectory have belonged to the Polish Catholic Church.