Kartuzy

Fot. UG w Kartuzach

The post-monastic Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kartuzy is a relic of the activity of the Carthusian Order, a very strict brotherhood whose members would greet each other with the words ”memento mori.” In the 18th century the roof of the church was rebuilt, giving it the shape of a coffin. Inside visitors can marvel at the unique 17th-century leather cordovans, the main altar and the baroque stalls decorated with bas-reliefs. In July and August the Kartuzy Summer Organ Concerts take place in the church, which has been recently elevated to the status of a collegiate church. Nearby, in the Refectory Gallery, there are temporary exhibitions by contemporary artists.

Pelplin

Fot. GCI w Pelplinie

In 1274 Duke Mestwin founded a Cistercian abbey here. The monks brought by him from Meklemburg were for 600 years the landlords of Pelplin lands. They left behind them the Gothic monastery complex and the Cathedral Basilica. The construction of this church with its nave and two aisles was finished in the middle of the 15th century. Cathedral visitors can marvel at the altars from the 17th and 18th centuries, the stalls, the pulpit, the organ and the monastery cloisters. The Diocesan Museum owns Poland’s only copy of the Guttenberg Bible, one of only 47 in the world. There are also crucifixes, figures of the Madonna and the saints, priceless incunabula and old manuscripts.

Chojnice

Fot. UM w Chojnicach

A fortified stronghold of the Pomeranian dukes, and conquered by the Teutonic knights in 1309. Chojnice’s oldest historic building is the Gothic Church of the Beheading of St John the Baptist from 1340-1360. It is brick-built and has a nave and two aisles. The late baroque period is represented by the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the neighbouring Jesuit College. Fragments of the town walls from the fourteenth century have survived, along with a few bastions and gates. The square, two-storey bastion Kurza Stopa (”Chickenfoot”) now houses the Gallery of Polish Art. The Old Town with the restored Town Hall and town-houses from the 17th and 19th centuries is a popular place for strolling.

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