St Mary's Church

Continuing down through more of Old Town, we got to look inside one of the old row houses. After the war they left the facades standing but built entirely different on the inside.  It allowed more light in and the apartments which allowed a more equal sharing of fresh air, light and space.  We also saw the smallest theater in Poland.  The plays are put on  in two windows  and the audience are on the outside of the building. We then made our way to St Mary's Church. It was the largest church in the world at one point but its construction was delayed by the Tutonic Knights who didn't want a church bigger than theirs. It was Catholic originally and is the largest Brick Church in the world. As protestantism gained favor it switched to Lutheran. Actually the Lutherans and Catholics shared it for a while. Then the Catholics were moved to a smaller location. The Lutherans whitewashed the interior and got rid of a lot of the ornate Baroque Style. There's a section where you can see the brick and the Baroque style. And there are several Tombstones still from the 1500s where people were buried in the entryway.

Golden berries

Singing an Opera perhaps

One of the most fabulous buildings of them all

Lots of Roman and Greek warriors were represented

Polish King's rocking mustache

Part of Neptune's fountain

Getting their gold on

The floors were ornately decorated

Looking up into the apartments that were built from three different buildings

Although the facade is not wide at all the interior in compasses two or three buildings in width

The play is performed Behind These two windows while the audience is on the sidewalk

Everything is tightly packed together

Looking up into the ceiling

Looking down into the sanctuary

Architectural highlights were everywhere

The stained glass

A secondary altar

A granite tombstone

The base is Brick and a baroque style was attached to that and then it was whitewashed over with a limestone mixture by the lutherans

A tombstone from the 1500s

The main entryway doors to the church

During the Reconstruction some measurements were off. As such these two windows competed against each other. The one window was continued on the interior so from inside you can't tell.