DOI Artikel:
Adamski, Jakub: An allusion to a cathedral in a rural foundation: on the iconography of the architecture of the sixteenth-century parish church in Brochów
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51757#0025
AN ALLUSION TO A CATHEDRAL IN A RURAL FOUNDATION?...
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17. Poznań, cathedral, interior of the choir.
Photo by J. Adamski
18. Poznań, cathedral, interior of the choir after the removal
of the 18th-century retable of the main altar in 1948.
Photo in the collection of the Municipal Conservator
of Historical Monuments in Poznań
as the episcopal one, similarly to the tower itself (“pinnaculum episcopale ante maius altare; pinnaculum
templi super maius altare”)72. All three gallery chapels were in liturgical use until the middle of the 18th
century; in 1660 Bishop Wojciech Tolibowski consecrated new altars there.73
Szczęsny Skibiński, author of the monographic study of the gothic cathedral in Poznań, rightly noted
that eastern towers with galleries giving onto the interior of the cathedral’s choir, as seen in Poznań, are
an extremely original solution that finds no direct analogy in European architecture74. Since they are
elevated loges for the bishop and the chapter, they participate in the very old, pan-European tradition of
architecturally elevating those areas of the church which were intended for privileged persons, especially
monarchs or church hierarchs, and in the later Middle Ages - for the holders of patronage rights over the
given church.75 In terms of concrete architectural solutions, however, towers with galleries as seen in the
Poznań cathedral were unique and must have been noticed, and wondered at, by the contemporary believers
and visitors to the church. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that in 1575/1576 the cathedral’s chapter
decreed to have the opening in the Bishop’s Tower walled over, as undesirable “rabble” frequented the
gallery during services held at the main altar.76 If this space provoked visitors to such rude behaviour, it
must have been perceived as interesting.
72 Ibidem, pp. 210-211, 453.
73 Ibidem, pp. 453-454.
74 Skibiński, Polskie katedry..., p. 162
75 See H. Liekes, Chorflankierende Oratorien und Herrschaftslogen des späteren Mittelalters, Tübingen 1982; A. Soćko, Układy
emporowe w architekturze państwa krzyżackiego, Warsaw 2005; T. Huitson, Stairway to Heaven. The Functions of Medieval Upper
Spaces, Oxford-Philadelphia 2014.
76 Nowacki, Kościół katedralny..., pp. 210-211, 453.
23
17. Poznań, cathedral, interior of the choir.
Photo by J. Adamski
18. Poznań, cathedral, interior of the choir after the removal
of the 18th-century retable of the main altar in 1948.
Photo in the collection of the Municipal Conservator
of Historical Monuments in Poznań
as the episcopal one, similarly to the tower itself (“pinnaculum episcopale ante maius altare; pinnaculum
templi super maius altare”)72. All three gallery chapels were in liturgical use until the middle of the 18th
century; in 1660 Bishop Wojciech Tolibowski consecrated new altars there.73
Szczęsny Skibiński, author of the monographic study of the gothic cathedral in Poznań, rightly noted
that eastern towers with galleries giving onto the interior of the cathedral’s choir, as seen in Poznań, are
an extremely original solution that finds no direct analogy in European architecture74. Since they are
elevated loges for the bishop and the chapter, they participate in the very old, pan-European tradition of
architecturally elevating those areas of the church which were intended for privileged persons, especially
monarchs or church hierarchs, and in the later Middle Ages - for the holders of patronage rights over the
given church.75 In terms of concrete architectural solutions, however, towers with galleries as seen in the
Poznań cathedral were unique and must have been noticed, and wondered at, by the contemporary believers
and visitors to the church. This is indirectly confirmed by the fact that in 1575/1576 the cathedral’s chapter
decreed to have the opening in the Bishop’s Tower walled over, as undesirable “rabble” frequented the
gallery during services held at the main altar.76 If this space provoked visitors to such rude behaviour, it
must have been perceived as interesting.
72 Ibidem, pp. 210-211, 453.
73 Ibidem, pp. 453-454.
74 Skibiński, Polskie katedry..., p. 162
75 See H. Liekes, Chorflankierende Oratorien und Herrschaftslogen des späteren Mittelalters, Tübingen 1982; A. Soćko, Układy
emporowe w architekturze państwa krzyżackiego, Warsaw 2005; T. Huitson, Stairway to Heaven. The Functions of Medieval Upper
Spaces, Oxford-Philadelphia 2014.
76 Nowacki, Kościół katedralny..., pp. 210-211, 453.