PYZDRY
Pyzdry is a town located on the Warta, ca. 20 south-east of Września, by the road to Kalisz.
The cloister was first mentioned in 1277. Its developments were destroyed in 1331 by the Teutonic Order army. The church and convent building existing to date were erected ca. 1339. A number of fires and rebuilding projects undertaken after each of them have altered the edifices’ look, however. Baroque forms were imposed on them in 17th to 18th century. It was probably in 17th c. that the Our Lady Chapel was created on the northern side of the nave, embedded in the convent structure’s wing. The latter half of 18th century saw erection of a tower and rebuilding of the temple’s façade; the last arch of the presbytery was cut off from the church solid and a sacristry was set up in it, the nave and the presbytery getting arched. In 1864, the Russian authorities brought about cassation of the convent. Circa 1910, the church’s interior was renovated after the design by Aleksander Przewalski.
At present, the temple is a succursal church, the former cloister building housing a.o. a Regional Museum and a library.
The Church of Beheading of St. John the Baptist is a mononave building, its narrower presbytery being contained multilaterally. The interior’s furnishings are diversified.
The former convent, adjacent to the church in the north, is a two-storied building whose four wings surround the garth. In the ambulatory are wall paintings made in 1733 by Adam Swach. As they were being restored in 1956–1958, a gothic figural polychrome, from 2nd half of 14th c. to early 16th c., was discovered there, as were renaissance paintings with vegetal motifs (2nd half of 16th c.). Presently, the former cloister buildings house a Regional Museum.
Muzeum Regionalne w Pyzdrach [The Regional Museum of Pyzdry]
ul. Kaliska 25a
62-415 Pyzdry
Tel. +48 63 276 81 07
