Church of the Holy Spirit in Bytom

The Church of the Holy Spirit on Krakowska Street in Bytom is a Baroque hospital chapel from 1721, built on an octagonal plan. It is entered in the heritage register.

History

The church was built in 1721 on the grounds of the Holy Spirit hospital, founded in 1299, on the site of an earlier wooden chapel. Among old reports about this place is a mention that Mass was celebrated in the chapel by the apostolic nuncio Ippolito Aldobrandini, later Pope Clement VIII. The church belongs today to the parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the Market Square and is the only one in the town that has remained Catholic throughout. Mass is celebrated in it in the classical Roman rite. There was a cemetery by the church, and in 2020 archaeologists discovered two graves there.

Architecture and furnishings

The building is Baroque, of brick, with the plan of a regular octagon with a side of 7 metres and a height of 12 metres. It is covered with an eight-sided tent roof with a ridge turret. Three Baroque altars and a pulpit have survived from the 18th century. Before the Second World War four designs for an extension with a new nave were proposed, and none was carried out. The Bytom church served as a model for the Church of the Holy Cross in Mysłowice.

In the gallery above the entrance stands a Romantic organ by Eduard Horn of Wrocław from 1875: eight stops, one manual and a pedal. The instrument was silent from 1990 and has undergone renovations. The church lies in the town centre, not far from the Silesian Opera building.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Krakowska, Bytom
• A branch church; the parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary provides information about service times and visiting