Church of the Holy Spirit in Lublin

The Church of the Holy Spirit is located next to the city hall, the seat of the Lublin City Office. In the Medieval times, it served as a hospital church and a shelter for the poor, the sick, and the disabled. The then regulations ordered that all hospitals and shelters for the old, the poor, the sick, and the disabled should be located outside city walls, aside the main road to the city. The original St. John Church was made of wood. It was located next to a brick 14th century hospital building with vaulted chambers. Approximately in 1419, the wooden church was replaced by a brick hospital church of the Holy Spirit. 

The church was an oriented (the main altar faced East) Gothic temple with a single nave, a lower and narrower presbytery, and a stepwise top over the west facade, typical for Gothic temples. The church and the hospital were managed by the city councilors, and later by a provost. The medieval temple was damaged in fires that broke out in 1557 and 1602. In 1608, it was rebuilt by an architect from Lublin, Jan Cangerle, in a style that came to be known as the Lublin Renaissance. A new presbytery was added to the Gothic nave, which is now adjacent to the Town Hall and is topped with a Baroque cupola decorated with late-Renaissance stucco-works. In the 2nd half of the 17th century, the Field Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Stefan Czarnecki, funded an aisle that was built at the north side of the temple. Following the fire in 1733 more changes were made to the church. The walls of the church were heightened and Baroque decoration was added atop the western facade. In the second half of the 19th century, the steeple received a neo-Gothic capping. The most valuable element of the temple is the painting of Our Lady of Good Advice.

Address: 1 Krakowskie Przedmiescie