Church of St. James

Located in a corner of the New City Market Square and towering over the New City, St. James’s Church is the New City’s gem. Erected in the first half of the fourteenth century. It is considered as one of the most valuable and interesting architectural achievements. It is a basilica-plan church (with the aisles lower than the nave), differing from other Torun’s Gothic churches also in that it uses a structure rarely employed in Poland: a free-standing aisle buttress attached to the nave by a flying buttress which transmits the thrust of the vault to the buttress.

Now that the vaults of the aisles were raised in the fifteenth century, only one flying buttress can be seen: that over the roof of sacristy. The unique character of the church is also determined by a myriad of decorations, detail styles and multicolour glazed brick. In the New Market Square, the church can be entered through the Gothic gate with a pillar and the Baroque figure of St. James, the patron. A distinctive feature of the church which strikes one on entering is its basilica layout and smaller size in comparison to other Gothic churches in Torun. The most valuable elements of the interior include the polychromes on the pillars and arcades beneath the tower, dating from the second half of the fourteenth century. In the first aisle from the entrance, on the Baroque altar, you can see a Gothic Cross of Black Christ Crucified dating from the first half of the fifteenth century, whereas in the first chapel from the presbytery there is a perfect late Gothic figure of Madonna and Child, dating back to the end of the fifteenth century. On the east front wall of the aisle, there is a Gothic painting from the second half of the fourteenth century, depicting scenes from the legends of Mary Magdalene.

Address: New City Market Square
[Torun]

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