St. Catherine's Church, Gdańsk, Poland

St Catherine's Church is the oldest church in Gdańsk. The first record dates from 1185, when Prince Sobieslaw I built a wooden church. It was replaced with a stone church in 1227-1239. St. Catherine’s church evolved over centuries and only reached its final shape in the mid-15th century. It was a Protestant church from 1545 until 1945, after which it became a Roman Catholic church. There are several magnificent details in the church, like Anton Möller’s triptych painted in 1563-1611.

The tower was destroyed in 1945 in World War II, but rebuilt again in the following decades. Today the church hosts a Tower Clock Museum.

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User Reviews

Joel Bean (2 years ago)
Great example of one of the few Polish Gothic brick churches in Gdańsk.

Pam Smith (2 years ago)
Attended 8 am mass here. Carmelite order of monks/priests serve the parish. Beautiful church. Small attendance of older folks. Communion served on tongue on your knees- lovely.

adrian m (Minimogul) (4 years ago)
Just a quick note to say that this church appeared to be closed at 12pm noon on a Saturday (December 2021). Not sure if this was due to Covid or construction or what, but wanted to offer a heads up for anyone making a special trip. St Bridget’s church (just around the corner…with the world’s largest amber altar) WAS open, however.

Thomas Riseng Nygaard (4 years ago)
Beautiful Church, free entrance??

Paweł (4 years ago)
The former parish, brick church of the Old Town was built in 14th century. Here Hevelius was church administrator and here is also his final resting place. You can find his tomb at the rear behind the altar along with an epitaph funded by his grandson nearly 100 years after the great man's death. Unfortunately in 2006 was great fire, which resulted in the ceiling collapsing, work to restore the church took a number of years.

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Photo from Flickr, copyright Zvonimir Hrvoj

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The beginning of the building of the church was placed to the second half of the 8th century, and it is supposed to have been completed in the 9th century. The Zadar bishop and diplomat Donat (8th and 9th centuries) is credited with the building of the church. He led the representations of the Dalmatian cities to Constantinople and Charles the Great, which is why this church bears slight resemblance to Charlemagne's court chapels, especially the one in Aachen, and also to the Basilica of San Vitale in Ravenna. It belongs to the Pre-Romanesque architectural period.

The circular church, formerly domed, is 27 m high and is characterised by simplicity and technical primitivism.

St. Catherine's Church

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