Story
The story of St. Mary's Basilica in Gdańsk
Locals call it the Crown of Gdańsk, and it is one of the three largest brick churches ever built, alongside San Petronio in Bologna and the Frauenkirche in Munich. With a volume of about 155,000 cubic metres, it can hold more than 25,000 people. The foundation stone was laid on 25 March 1343, but the present church was begun in 1379 by the Danzig architect Heinrich Ungeradin, and it was completed in 1502, when Heinrich Haetzl finished the vaulting.
It is 105.5 metres long, and its style shows the influence of other Hanseatic churches around the Baltic. Its history reflects the Reformation: most people of Danzig turned Lutheran, the first Lutheran sermon was given here in 1529, and between 1536 and 1572 Catholic and Lutheran services were held here side by side. From the sixteenth century until 1945 it was the second-largest Lutheran church in the world.
In the late seventeenth century a domed Baroque chapel was added for the Polish kings and Catholic worship. Today it is a Catholic co-cathedral.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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