St. Hedwig Church

The church was first mentioned in 1298 as the Holy Cross Church. In the third quarter of the 14th century, side aisles and chapels were added to the building, probably due to the growing population. A passage was also created between the transept and the ground floor of the tower, so that the western part of the church took the form of a three-aisled hall. The church tower was damaged during the Hussite invasion of 1428 and the conquest of the city in 1444. During the Reformation, the church became Lutheran, but was recatholicized during the Thirty Years' War and finally handed over to the Roman Catholic Church in 1654. In 1646, Swedish troops destroyed the two upper floors of the tower by shelling. A first restoration took place in 1816, followed by further renovation work in 1846. During this time, the Gothic gables were removed and the current hip roof was added, and some of the early Gothic small windows were also removed.

Unusually for a urban parish church, the building stands on a cruciform ground plan. The exterior facades of the church are framed by buttresses and a profiled plinth. Between them are tall and narrow pointed arch windows. Slightly wider windows are located in the east wall of the choir and in the gables of the transept. The windows in the chancel are characterized in the archivolts by relief friezes with floral and geometric motifs. The west wall of the nave, on the other hand, features a stepped oculus with a mask rosette. The entrance to the church leads from the west through a pointed arch, richly profiled portal, framed by a rectangular cornice. Between the sacristy and the chancel there is a simple pointed arch portal. All parts of the building are provided with rib vaults. In the northern nave, keystones show the coat of arms of the Dukes of Jawor-Świdnica. The keystones of the vault ribs in the transept bear figural sculptures. They depict a female bust with a miter, a bearded man and four male heads, presumably Duchess Hedwig, her husband Henry the Bearded and their four grandsons Bolesław II, Konrad I of Głogów, Henry III and Władysław of Silesia. The rich ornamentation with high-quality architectural sculpture is remarkable. Therefore, the Bolkenhain church was probably not just a normal city parish church, but also served as a princely church for the large Bolkoburg castle enthroned above the town. In Silesia, only the church in Kalkau is comparable.