Kościół Świętych Piotra i Pawła, Wrocław

The Church of Saints Peter and Paul is a compact Brick Gothic church beside Tumski Bridge on Ostrów Tumski. Begun in 1404 and completed in 1454, it survived fires, wartime damage and reconstruction. Its eastern garden contains a stone figure of Saint Peter moved here in 1963.

Beside Tumski Bridge, this is the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, a small brick church on the south-western edge of Ostrów Tumski. Its long side faces Katedralna Street, and the building measures only twenty-four metres by fourteen. The church took shape in stages: the chancel was built from 1404, and work on the nave ended in 1454.

Its Brick Gothic style belongs to the medieval tradition of building ambitious churches in brick rather than stone. This modest church has repeatedly had to begin again. A major fire in 1634 destroyed its roof and vaults; the interior was rebuilt in Baroque fashion in 1667, this time without its original central support.

Fire struck again in 1791. In 1813, during the Napoleonic Wars, the church became a hospital for captured French soldiers. The damage of 1945 cost it the roof and vaulting once more.

Reconstruction in 1952 and 1953 restored part of its Gothic character, including a cross-rib vault carried by a rebuilt stone pillar half a metre across. Notice the garden on the eastern side: since 1963, it has held a stone figure of Saint Peter brought here from the nearby Church of St Mary on the Sand.