Kościół Świętego Krzysztofa, Wrocław

Kościół Świętego Krzysztofa serves Wrocław’s Lutheran parish of Saint Christopher, beside Saint Christopher Square where Kazimierza Wielkiego meets Wierzbowa Street. Take in the steep roof and the dense brickwork of this compact church. It began as a burial chapel for Saint Mary of Egypt, recorded in Duke Władysław of Wrocław’s foundation document in twelve sixty-seven.

Early in the fifteenth century, Henryk of Ząbkowice remade it as a Gothic brick church; its net vault was then an innovation in Wrocław. Furriers cared for the church, and Polish sermons were given here from at least fourteen sixteen. A Lutheran school also operated here from around fifteen sixty until seventeen twenty, teaching children catechism and Bible recitation in Polish.

The siege of Wrocław devastated the building in nineteen forty-five, with damage estimated at seventy-five percent. Restoration brought it back into use for the Lutheran community. Inside, a towering wooden Saint Christopher carved in fourteen sixty-two survived the wartime fire because it had stood in an exterior wall niche; it now stands near the pulpit. The church’s interior also contains a mannerist wooden triptych altar brought from Masłów.