Modus: Prace z historii sztuki (8-9.2009)

A Few Remarks on the Architecture of St. Jacob's Church

in Toruń

The church of St. Jacob in Toruń is an outstanding example of brick Gothic architec-
ture; it was erected with the assistance of the Teutonic Order as a parish church in Nowe
Miasto of Toruń between the year 1309 and 1341. Due to a lack of scientific monographs
of this monument, the main issues associated with its architecture still remain unexplained.
The aim of the present article is to present a few of the observations of its author. concern-
ing chiefly the possible analogies between the arrangement of the nave and its articulation.
as welł as the layout of the pseudo-polygonal eastern part of the church.

The specific arrangement of the main nave with the sąuare twice as narrow bays and
the nearly bays of the disles, is recognized in literaturę as an archaistic feature: analogous
features can be found in the cathedrals in Magdeburg and Brunswick. Yet such a spatial
plan had been used at the tum of the 13th and 14th centuries much more freąuently. On the
territory of the Chełmno province, it can be found for instance in the Franciscan church in
Chełmno dating back to the second half of the 13th century. A similar arrangement of the
three-bay corpus as well as the presence of massive rolls under the arches of the arcades.
allows one to put forward a hypothesis that the Toruń architect must have denved his
inspiration from the not much earlier Franciscan church. As is emphasized by numerous
scholars, the creator of the church of St. Jacob quite willingly relied on the architectural
tradition of the Chełmno land.

The problem of the origin of the articulation of walls in the main nave of the church
has been interpreted in various ways in literaturę. Teresa Mroczko perceives in it the influ-
ence of Anglo-Norman architecture, whereas Marian Kutzner on the other hand. regards
the Toruń nave as a copy of St. Mary's church in Liibeck. A characteristic feature of the
articulation in the main nave are big wall-side arcades on the upper floor of the wali which
are joined with each other by passages in the wali. Entrances to these passages are empha-
sized in the face of wall-side arcades by smali blends which is a characteristic motif of the
majority of the churches using the "Liibeck system". This hardly noticeable analogy un-
doubtedly testifies to the influence of the Liibeck style on the arrangement used in Toruń,
yet contrary to Kutzner's view, one cannot speak of a simple imitation in this case. The
wall-side pillar which separates the wall-side arcades in the Liibeck churches, has simply
taken on the shape of a fragment of the wali, although the sources of the above inspiration
are quite elear. This testifies to the artistic attitude of the architect who created a work with
an individual stylistic expression. His use of a larger surface of the wali may be regarded
as an archaizing feature, similarly as the oceurrence of rolls in the arcades.

The arrangement of the eastern bay of the presbytery is totally innovative. In spite
of the application of a closure in a form of a plain wali, the use of a pseudo-polygonal
vault was to suggest the appearance of a polygonal closure - as was suggested by many
researchers who ąuoted numerous analogies of similar solutions. Among the significant
solutions which underscore this type of illusionism, one finds asymmetrical window edges
and doubled buttresses which, contrary to the published plans of the church, are not paral-
lel. An analysis of the correctly drawn plan of the presbytery shows that the axes defined
by the supports and window edges converge in the central point of the ceiling of this part

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