Europe
Poland
Warszawa
English Warsaw
German Warschau

church of Saint Hyacinth
built 1603-1639
church of the Virgin of Victory of the Dominican Observant Friars  
1668-1818

 

For the early history of the Dominicans in Poland, click here.

A nbrief description.

The church of Saint Hyacinth

The nice little Baroque church of Saint Hyacinth was built by the Dominicans between 1603 and 1639 by the architect Joannes Italus.
At the left side of the church the chapel of Saint Dominic, paid by the family Kotowski, built by the Dutch architect Tylman or Tilman van Gameren of Warsaw.

During World War II, the church and monastery served the Polish forces in the Warsaw Uprising as a field hospital. This fact turned these buildings into targets of frequent bombing by the Germans, and was almost destroyed in 1944.Only the chapel pf Saint Dominic was one of the few parts of the church to survive the war.  Its current form dates from 1959. 

There is a tragic story connected with this church: the shrine was pulled down on the order of Grand Duke Constantine, the brother of the tsar who ruled in Poland under Russia. During mass, a young priest committed suicide on the altar steps. Constantine feared patriotic demonstrations, and ordered the church pulled down. It was short work, and one year later construction started on the Staszic Palace. So, the mortal remains of Tylman van Gameren, or Tylman Gamerski of Warsaw, as his contemporaries used to call him, found no eternal resting place.

Tilman of Gameren
1632-1706

Timan of Gameren (1632-1706) born in the small Dutch town of Gameren. He received a rigorous education, and was working in Venice, reportedly as a painter of battle scenes, in 1661.
In that year he was invited to come to Poland by Prince Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski, and spent the rest of his life in the service of the Lubomirskis.
During the 40 years he lived in Poland, van Gameren designed several dozen architectural works. The Seym (a parliament of the nobility) acknowledged him as a Polish nobleman in 1685.  Tylman died in Warsaw (1706) and was buried in the Dominican Observant Friars' Church on Krakowskie Przedmieście Street, on the site of today's Staszic Palace and Copernicus monument.

The church of the Virgin of Victory of the Dominican Observant Friars

King Wladyslaw IV (09.06.1595-20.05.1648)) granted the Dominicans in Warszawa  a to build a priory with a small church. They built the complex in 1668, which they enlarged from 1721 till 1741, dedicated to the Virgin of Victory. The church and priory were pulled down in 1818.

Sources: Internet: Warschau churches. Information by Magister Bogdan Michalak, 31.12.2007.

Philately

King Wtadystaw IV granted the Dominican Observant Friars to build a priory with a small church in Warzawa. They built the complex in 1668, which they enlarged from 1721 till 1741, dedicated to the Virgin of Victory.
The church and priory were pulled down in 1818.

Poland 1964, postal card.

Paddle Steamer Prince Ksawery (1830)
and Old Warszawa with churches.
Below zt the Dominican church.

Poland 1979, Mi 2633, Sc 2341.

On this stamp the Royal Castle of Warszawa in 1656
after an engraving by Erik J. Dahlberg.
Dominican chruches???

View of Warsaw 1618, with churches.

Poland 1981, Mi 2751, Sc 2459.

Pope John Paul II visited for the second time Poland
from 16 till 23 July 1983. He was also in Warszawa
at the monument in the ghetto.
On the cover an old engraving of Warszawa with
churches, also the Dominican church.

Vatican City 1983, KimCover PW 296.

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