St Martin's Church

Early baroque with a modest façade (attributed to Giovanni Trevano) in the form of Rome’s Il Gesù, the church was built in 1637-1640 for the Order of Discalced Carmelite Nuns. It replaced an earlier, 12th-century Romanesque church. A memorial and at the same time a testimony to the mediaeval pedigree is the characteristic setting of the façade – at an angle to the street – resulting from the precise orientation (i.e. positioning of the church’s chancel directly to the east: towards Christ’s grave) of the plan of the original church.

The church is entered through a portal with a Latin inscription Frustra vivit, qui nemini prodest (In vain lives he who brings assistance to none). The interior of the church is also modest, and consists of a single space, proper for the canons of Carmelite architecture, which promoted austere forms, and gave up domes and towers. The tunnel vaulting with lunettes received a geometrical panelled decoration. The empty arcaded niches in the bays reinforce the planned impact of the space and the austere climate. The high altar, situated in the chancel enclosed with a straight wall, is adorned with a painting of Christ Silencing the Storm by a leading representative of Polish academism, Henryk Siemiradzki. A Gothic crucifix transferred from the old church and dating from about 1380, is situated high above the altar. It is considered miraculous, as a legend claims that it spoke out to one of the sisters. Towards the end of the 18th century, after the Carmelite sisters moved to a convent in today’s ul. Kopernika, the church and its nunnery were deserted until in 1816 the city authorities transferred it to the Lutheran congregation, and earmarked it as their parish church.