The county seat is approx. 140 km south-east of Poznań. The church is on St. Joseph Square.
This Gothic temple was erected in 1359. The baroque nave was added to the original presbytery c. 1790. Pope Paul VI upgraded the temple to a minor basilica in 1978.
The church is a three-nave basilica with a presbytery. The sacristy, which has a strongroom in the floor, is on one side of the aisle extensions, and the octagonal Holy Family chapel on the other. The presbytery has a Gothic star vault, the nave, barrel vaults and the aisles, sail vaults. The classicist high altar from 1829 contains a Gothic portrait of the Virgin Mary painted in 1424.
The 17th-century painting of the Holy Family in the baroque altar of the chapel was decorated with papal tiaras in 1796 and has become an object of veneration among the faithful. The Kalisz church is now one of Poland’s major centres of devotion to St. Joseph, the patron saint of families.
Address:
pl. Św. Józefa 7
62-800 Kalisz
Tel. +48 62 757 58 22
