Kościół pw. Świętego Wawrzyńca, Wrocław

St Lawrence’s Church is Żerniki’s Roman Catholic parish church, dedicated to Lawrence of Rome. Its unrendered brick exterior belongs to the Gothic tradition, and the building before you is substantially the church’s form from around fourteen hundred, despite many later changes. Notice the tower attached at the west end: its upper portion was added during the fifteenth century, and it still projects above the steep roof.

The entrance arrangement tells a quieter story of alteration. The principal doorway originally opened on the south side; the portal through the tower was only created in the nineteenth century. During the siege of Wrocław in nineteen forty-five, the church was destroyed.

Architect Witold Rawski directed its reconstruction between nineteen forty-seven and nineteen fifty. The rebuilt church retains a rectangular hall plan and an eastern chancel. In that chancel, the cross vault rests on two fifteenth-century sandstone corbels.

The restoration also replaced an earlier plain board ceiling with a decorative coffered one. Its historic furnishings include an eighteenth-century carved-wood high altar, a fifteenth-century sandstone holy-water stoup, and three Renaissance tomb slabs.