Church of St. Francis in Lwówek Śląski, Gothic monastery in Lwówek Śląski, Poland.
The Church of St. Francis in Lwówek Śląski is a Gothic structure built from sandstone, featuring pointed arches and ribbed vaults throughout its interior. The building spans 50 meters in length and 25 meters in width, creating a substantial sacred space for worship and monastic life.
Franciscans reached Lwówek Śląski in 1227, and Duke Henry II the Pious founded the convent. In 1248 the knight Henry called the Long gave the friars a plot on the former castle suburb, where a single-nave stone church dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul was begun that year and probably finished in 1268. In 1460 Konrad Pflüger added the south nave; the north nave and St Anne's chapel followed.
The former Franciscan chapel of St. Anne, now the presbytery, served as the burial place of the Płakowice lords: Gothard von Schaffgotsch, who died in Lwówek in 1643, and Jan Ulryk von Schaffgotsch, last of his line, who died in 1739. Their epitaphs were later moved to the town hall vestibule. Near the entrance hangs a plaque with an angel holding two shields: one bears the bakers' guild emblem, a pretzel-like obwarzanek, the other the initials MW and the date 1685.
The church is generally open daily to visitors, though it is best to visit outside of active service times. Respectful behavior is expected since this remains a functioning place of worship for the local community.
The church began as a single-nave stone building; Konrad Pflüger added the south nave in 1460, and the north nave and St Anne's chapel followed. The former sacristy, at the base of the unfinished tower, now holds a chapel of Our Lady of Fatima, while the two-bay burial chapel of the Raussendorf, Talkenberg and Schaffgotsch families became the sacristy in 1999.
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