The county seat is situated on the Prosna, about 140 km south-east of Poznań.
The Kalisz monastery is the oldest Franciscan convent in Wielkopolska. It was built in 1257 and funded by Duke Boleslaus the Pious and his wife, Blessed Jolenta. The presbytery and neighbouring chapel have whatever vestiges survive from those times. The three-nave body was probably added to the presbytery in the 2nd half of the 13th century. The church was given its final shape at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries. The oldest, western, wing of the monastery was also built at this time. The building was seriously damaged by fire in 1537 and 1559. Due to financial problems, reconstruction only began at the end of the 16th century and was not completed until 1632. The work was supervised by Italian architect Albin Fontana from the beginning of the 1620s. The body of the church was covered with new vaults, which were then decorated in late-renaissance stucco in 1623. The extension of the monastery began in 1637.
The Prussians expelled the monks and moved them to a Canons Regular monastery in 1798. The monastery was converted into a prison and substantially rebuilt. The Franciscans made use of part of the building during the time of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. The prison was only closed in 1858. The Russian authorities moved monks from liquidated Franciscan convents into the Kalisz monastery in 1864. The monastery was eventually closed in 1902. The Franciscans returned in 1918 and again in 1945. The church was thoroughly renovated several times during the 19th and 20th centuries.
The Conventual Franciscan monastery in Kalisz belongs to the Province of the Immaculate Virgin Mary in Warsaw.
The Church of St. Stanislaus of Szczepanów has an early Gothic frame which was later rebuilt. The extended presbytery adjoins the three-nave hall corpus. The Passion of Christ chapel and the old belfry from 1640 are on the north side of the presbytery. The presbytery has Gothic ribbed groin vaults from the 2nd half of the 13th century and the nave has barrel vaults with lunettes and richly decorated with Lublin-Kalisz stucco. The mostly baroque and rococo furnishings are from the 18th century.
A two-storey baroque monastery, whose cloisters enclose a small patio, adjoins the presbytery from the south.
Address:
ul. Sukiennicza 7
62-800 Kalisz
Tel. 062 757 38 74
