St. Jakob Church Toruń

The church serves as the parish church for Toruń's New Town, founded in 1264. The foundation stone was laid in 1309 by Bishop Hermann. In the same year, construction of the choir began. Around 1340, the church building with the floor plan of a three-aisled basilica, rare in the Chełmno Land, was completed. In 1345, the church was transferred to the Cistercian monastery, later to the Benedictine nuns. From 1359 until the 15th century, side chapels were added to the sides of the nave, their raised roofs concealing the underlying flying buttresses, which shapes the current appearance of the church. The characteristic double roof of the tower was erected in 1455 after a fire. From the introduction of the Reformation in 1557, the church was used by Protestants from Toruń's New Town, but in the course of the Counter-Reformation in Poland from 1667, it was again taken over by the Benedictines. During the Great Northern War, the Swedish army plundered the two largest bells in 1703. One of them, the Thornan, is still in Uppsala Cathedral today and is Sweden's largest medieval bell.

Following the pattern of Western European stone cathedrals, the roof and vault loads in the main nave are transferred to the buttresses of the side aisles, crowned with pinnacles, with the help of external flying buttresses. To integrate the building into the existing street grid, the church's chancel does not point strictly east, but northeast. The choir has a star vault, while the eastern bay has a pseudo-polygonal vault. The choir is remarkably designed, with the greatest richness of forms and colors. Green and yellow glazed bricks alternate with red bricks at the edges. The tower forms a wide westwork, with tall, narrow blind arches extending over five stories of the tower. Four corner towers are corbelled out on the uppermost tower story.

Among the most important original furnishings are a crucifix from the demolished Dominican church of St. Nicholas, wall paintings under the tower and in the choir, a statue of Mary with Child from the end of the 14th century in the main nave, and a Passion painting from around 1480–1490. The so-called black crucifix from the first half of the 15th century was particularly revered, as was the figure of the Rosary Madonna from around 1500. The Diocesan Museum in Pelplin houses, among other things, a wooden statue of Christ in the Garden from around 1400, which comes from the chapel attached to the tower, a painting of the Madonna with Child from around 1440, a Gothic ciborium, and two reliquaries. From the Protestant period date the richly carved organ case from 1611, a painting of the Last Judgment from 1603 by Anton Möller from Gdańsk, and the baptismal font. Most of the altars, including some from St. Nicholas, date from the 18th century and show the high level of Baroque wood carving in Toruń. Also from the 18th century are the pulpit (1770) and some paintings in the side chapels. A crucifixion painting by Bartholomäus Strobel from 1634, which was moved from the Holy Spirit Church (Kościół Świętego Ducha w Toruniu) of the former nunnery, is noteworthy. The neo-Gothic stained glass windows in the eastern choir windows were created by Franz Binsfeld from Trier (1913–1914). The epitaph commemorates Bishop Adolf Piotr Szelążek of the Diocese of Lutsk, who was buried in this church, which was then cared for by priests of his diocese.