St. Antoni Padewski Church

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This city on the Warta is the regional and voivodeship capital and the see of the Poznań archdiocese. It is an important point on the Piast Trail.

The Conventual Franciscans came to Poland in 1644. As their arrival sparked protests from other orders, they did not commence building a new church until 1668. This and the adjoining monastery were erected according to a design by Jan Koński. The building was transferred to German Catholics after the order was suppressed by the Prussian authorities. The Franciscans returned in 1921 but the church was given back to German Catholics during WWII. It still has its original furnishings as a result of having been used continuously as a sacred building.

The church has three naves and chapels on the aisle extensions. The Czech friars Adam Swach (painter), and his brother Antoni (sculptor and wood carver), are responsible for most of the furnishings. The main nave is dedicated to St. Antoni Padewski. The high altar features the 18th-century painting The Vision of St. Antony with two angels holding a reliquary containing St. Anthony’s tongue above it. The west (right) nave is dedicated to St. Francis and the east (left) to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The oldest quadratura (an illusory architectural representation) in Poland can be found on the vault at the intersection of the naves.

The east chapel and altar were designed for the famous miraculous painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary Our Lady of Poznań (a 1668 copy of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Borek). The painting was officially pronounced miraculous in 1670 and has become an object of public veneration. The altar for it was made of coloured oak wood in 1688-1693. The painting itself is in the central part and is decorated in silver with stellar and rose themes alluding to the Morning Star and Mystic Rose of the Loretan Litany of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The side panel portraits of Mary’s parents, St. Joachim and St. Anne, open out when the painting is unveiled. This rotates the twisted columns separating the fields of the altar. The painting is unveiled every day at 7:00 a.m. and covered after evening mass.

The stalls in the presbytery are lavishly embellished with sculptured stairways (Antoni Swach) in the form of the dragon of sin.Read more