Corpus Christi Church

This is the second biggest Gothic church in Poznań after the Cathedral. It was founded by king Wladyslaw Jagiello in 1406. The construction of this out of town church was slow and took until 1470. In 1657 the church was burnt down by the Brandenburg army. During its reconstruction, completed in 1664, the vaulting over the main nave and the west gable received Baroque forms. A spire was built at the turn of the 18th century, the Chapel of Our Lady of the Scapular in 1726, and in the middle of the 18th century, the sacristy. After the closure of the monastery in 1823, the church fell into disrepair. It was saved from demolition thanks to intercessions from the archbishops Marcin Dunin and Leon Przyłuski. After being renovated, in 1856, the church fell briefly under the supervision of Protestants. Then for some time it was administered by the army, and since 1899 it has been a parish church.
It is a hall structure. The three naves are separated by arcades whose pointed arches are supported by profiled pillars. Adjacent to the nave and aisles is an extended chancel of the same height. The interior is illuminated by light coming in through the Gothic windows. Three of them (in the chancel) still have the original stone tracery from the 15th century. The church is entered through portals made of glazed, multicoloured bricks (the south entrance is walled up). The Gothic groined - rib vaulting over the chancel is ornamented with Baroque stucco. The main nave has a Baroque barrel vaulting with lunettes; the side naves still have their original stellar vaulting from the 15th century. The stained glasses in the chancel were made in 1950 by Stanisław Powalisz, and those in the side naves and the facade were made by Zygmunt Kośmicki in 1967.
The high altar, set up here around 1726, is most probably the work of Pompeo Ferrari. It is embellished by an anonymous painting of The Last Supper. On the chancel walls there are large portraits of the church's founder, Wladyslaw Jagiello, and his wife Jadwiga dating from 1665, and close to the rood - screen arch there are coffin portraits and coats of arms of the Great Poland nobility from the 17th century. Adjoining the chancel is the Chapel of Our Lady of the Scapular designed by Pompeo Ferrari with an interesting late Baroque polychromy on display (unveiled in 1958). There are also three altars in the chapel and an organ gallery with rich Regency - rococo decorations. In the middle of the main nave there is a fragment of an old altar of St Onuphrius, reconstructed in 1925. Legend has it that it marks the spot where the three Sacred Hosts had been found at the end of the 14th century.
Located on a common by the Warta River, the church has often been flooded in the past. Plaques mark the levels of water in 1698, 1736 and 1888. The monastery, which was built around the same time as the church, has lost its original characteristics. Only one of its rooms, which must have been the refectory, has kept its original late Gothic stellar vaulting. In the churchyard there is a Baroque statue of the prophet Elias from the middle of the 18th century.

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