Maria Hilf chapel in Piekary Śląskie, Gothic Revival chapel in Piekary Śląskie, Poland.
Maria Hilf chapel is a Neo-Gothic brick chapel built in 1905 to a design by Bytom architect Karl Mainka. It stands on a rectangular plan with a three-sided apse to the north-west, covered by a gable roof, and its corners are braced by buttresses that become brick pinnacles on the south-east front. It stands alone among trees on a small hill near the A1 motorway and the railway line.
A wooden chapel stood here by the 19th century, shown on an 1827 map; one legend traces an earlier shrine to King Jan III Sobieski's march to Vienna. The brick chapel was built in 1905 to a design by Bytom architect Karl Mainka, funded by the Langner family or, by some accounts, merchant Ignatz Hakuba. After the Silesian uprisings it was ruined and looted, and around 1924 blasting for a new railway line and station caused further damage. Restored in 2020–2021, it was returned to use on 20 September 2021.
Until World War I, Marian celebrations were held here on the last Sunday of May, drawing worshippers from Rozbark, Bytom and Piekary. After 1922 the chapel stood a few dozen metres from the Polish-German border, and border guards used it as a resting place, cleaning and restoring it. Scouts from Bytom and members of the "Sokół" gymnastics society also met on the grounds.
The chapel stands alone on a small hill in a clump of trees near the A1 motorway and the railway line, by the Bytom border. Since the early 2000s the entrance and all windows have been walled up, so the interior cannot be visited; the building is viewed from outside. Benches, bins, lamps, a bike rack and an information board were installed around it during the 2020–2021 renovation.
The chapel's windows were once filled with stained glass, including a Madonna of the Fields above the entrance, and the interior had painted decoration, stucco work and a mosaic-tiled floor. These furnishings were looted after the Silesian uprisings, and in the early 21st century the entrance and all window openings were walled up to secure the building.
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