St Mary's Church, Gdansk

St Mary's took roughly a century and a half to build and finished in the sixteenth century as one of the largest brick churches anywhere, big enough to hold a crowd counted in the thousands. The interior is whitewashed and lit by plain glass, so the effect is of pale space under a net vault rather than colour, and the furnishings stand out against it. The astronomical clock in the north transept, built in the fifteenth century, is about fourteen metres high and carries a calendar, planets and a procession of figures. The tower is a climb of over four hundred steps, mostly brick stairs and then timber, ending on a flat top above the roofs.

History

By tradition a wooden church stood here as early as 1243, built by Duke Świętopełk II of Pomerania. The foundation stone of the brick church was laid on 25 March 1343, and in 1379 the architect Heinrich Ungeradin began the present building, whose eastern part was finished by 1447; the church was completed in 1502, the first Lutheran sermon was preached here in 1529, and from 1536 to 1572 it served Catholic and Lutheran worship side by side (Wikipedia, St. Mary's Church, Gdańsk).

The main sights

• The astronomical clock - a towering fifteenth century mechanism with calendar and moving figures.
• The net vault - the pale ribbed ceiling running the length of the nave.
• The tower climb - over four hundred steps to a flat top with the old town and the cranes below.
• The copy of the Last Judgement - the Memling altarpiece copy, the original held in the National Museum in Gdansk.

When to go

May to September for the tower, which shuts in bad weather and high wind. Mornings are quieter, and the church closes to visitors during services and on Sunday mornings. Summer afternoons bring cruise groups and a queue at the tower stair, which is single file in places. The interior is cold and needs a layer even in July.

Practical notes

The interior is bare compared with churches elsewhere in Europe, since much was lost and much of what stands is post-war restoration. The tower climb is long, warm and narrow with no lift and limited passing space, and the top is fenced with mesh that gets in the way of photographs. Cruise ship days make the whole main town crowded.

Nearby

The Long Market, the Motlawa waterfront with its great timber crane and the amber shops of Mariacka street.

Key facts