Chapel / 2021

“The style of the church was and must remain the style of each epoch:hence it would be a breach of truth to create contemporary in the styles of bygone era. This applies to both the creation of new sacred buildings and the extension and completion of the decor of historic buildings. Historical churches should not be fitted with equipment imitating the old style, but modern equipment, but harmonized with the historic interior.”
These words are not a manifesto of an avant-garde creative group. They come from Instruction of “Polish Episcopate on the protection of monuments and directions for the development of church art”of April 16, 1966. The document is therefore more than half a century old and has not lost anything of its relevance, although unfortunately its message is not always implemented in practice.

For hundreds of years, new styles in architecture and fine arts were shaped and tested for the needs of the Church. The intellectual ferment, theological discussions, and the changing political, social and economic role of the Church needed new means of expressions.
In view of the conservatism of Polish Catholicism today, it is hard to believe that Christianity used to be in vanguard of the search for truth and it was not necessary then to remind that “… it would be a failure to truthfully create contemporary styles in the styles of bygone eras”.

The custom of adoration of the Blessed Sacrament appeared in the Cathedral of Milan at the beginning of the 16th century. In recent years, this tradition has experienced a renaissance in almost all of Europe. Most often, adoration takes place in the existing, adapted for this purpose chapels adjacent to old churches. In Racibórz, next to the neo-Gothic church of St.Nicholas, there was an idea to build a new free-standing chapel for this purpose.

A simple plan based on a square plan precisely performs the function the building is to serve. The fully glazed entrance wall opens onto the church square and indirectly, in the long run, to one of the busiest intersections in the city.

This is to invite people inside, giving evidence that the adoration actually lasts.

Diffused light enters the chapel through the openwork wall behind the altar. In this solution, one can find inspiration with a Gothic tracery, adapted to the contemporary and ascetic character of the interior.

Also the material of the walls – clinker brick refers to the main body of the church.