Kościół Świętego Wojciecha, Wrocław

Church of Saint Adalbert is one of Wrocław’s oldest and largest Gothic churches, located beside Plac Dominikański in the Old Town. Founded as a Dominican church in 1226, it was rebuilt after Mongol damage and again after the Second World War. Its Baroque chapel preserves the relics of Blessed Ceslaus.

Church of Saint Adalbert, beside Plac Dominikański in the Old Town, is among Wrocław’s oldest and largest Gothic churches. Its brick Gothic style is the medieval pointed-arch manner shaped in brick rather than stone. The story begins even earlier: a Romanesque church here was consecrated in 1112, before Wrocław received its city charter.

In 1226 Bishop Wawrzyniec handed the church to Dominican friars brought from Kraków, with Blessed Ceslaus as their first prior. The Mongol invasion of 1241 damaged the church and convent. Reconstruction created the Gothic nave and transept in the mid-thirteenth century; the new polygon-ended choir was begun in 1295, and the tower was finished in 1359.

Inside, the Baroque chapel of Blessed Ceslaus holds an alabaster sarcophagus containing his relics, surrounded by twenty-four relief scenes of his life and miracles. The church was heavily damaged during the final fighting of the Second World War. That chapel, the sacristy and the Passion Chapel survived; Dominicans returned in 1951 and began rebuilding the ruined church. This is also a double sanctuary, dedicated to Our Lady of Podkamień and Blessed Ceslaus.