Church of St. Mary in Lwówek Śląski, Gothic church in Lwówek Śląski, Poland.
The Church of St. Mary is a brick and sandstone ashlar hall church with three aisles and a massive westwork of two square towers, their upper storeys octagonal. The west facade keeps a late-13th-century red sandstone portal whose tympanum shows the Coronation of the Virgin; the interior, vaulted until 1866, now has a flat wooden ceiling and two rows of octagonal piers.
Founded in 1209 by Duke Henry I the Bearded at the request of his wife Jadwiga, the church replaced a 12th-century wooden building and was first mentioned in the town's 1217 charter. The Knights Hospitaller took over patronage in 1281 and began a Gothic rebuild around 1300, keeping the Romanesque west front. After a fire in 1455, Conrad Pflüger and Hans Lindener rebuilt it between 1493 and about 1550; it was Protestant from about 1520 to 1637 and restored in 1970–1976.
The church's name changed with its patrons: founded as St. John's, it is now dedicated to the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, and the 1217 town charter already names it. From 1281 to 1810 the Knights of St. John held patronage; from about 1520 to 1637 it served Protestants, returning to Catholics in 1650. The parish also owns the 1728 former Johannite house.
The church is located near the town center and is easily accessible from the main square of Lwówek Śląski. Visitors should plan their visit during non-service times when possible and dress appropriately when entering.
The west front keeps its late-Romanesque two-tower massif, but the central rose window was later walled up; in its axis stand two pointed-arch windows from around 1500. Inside, only every second pair of the octagonal pillars survives, since six were removed in 1863–66.
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