Kościół pw. Świętej Katarzyny, Gdańsk

St Catherine’s Church is the ancient parish church before you, dedicated to Catherine of Alexandria. It is Gdańsk’s oldest church, begun between twelve twenty-seven and twelve thirty-nine through the patronage of the dukes of Pomerania. Its Gothic character means the medieval language of soaring masonry and vaulting; later enlargement gave the building much of its present mass.

Let your gaze travel along the tower: it rises seventy-six metres and carries a Baroque cap designed by Jacob van den Blocke in sixteen thirty-four. Within this church lies the grave slab of the astronomer Johannes Hevelius, dated sixteen fifty-nine, alongside paintings by Anton Möller and Izaak van den Blocke and elaborate Baroque memorial tablets. The building has endured extraordinary damage and recovery.

Fire during the fighting of nineteen forty-five destroyed the principal altar, roofs, tower cap, and part of the vaulting. Reconstruction then continued across several decades. Another severe fire in May two thousand six brought down the roof, yet the interior avoided ignition and the threatened tower survived; the roof and burned timberwork of the cap were renewed. The tower also holds a museum devoted to turret clocks, a carillon of fifty bells, and, since two thousand eleven, the world’s only pulsar clock.