The county seat is situated on the Prosna, about 140 km south-east of Poznań.
King Kazimierz Wielki (Casimir III the Great) invited the Canons Regular to Kalisz in 1358. He settled them around St. Nicholas Church from the 2nd half of the 13th century. The church was elevated to monastic collegiate status in 1441. A walled monastery was built next to the church in 1448, rebuilt in 1538-1539, and joined to the church via a covered walkway. Both buildings were destroyed by fire. The nave was raised and a new vault installed during an early 17th-century renovation overseen by Albin Fontana. The tower collapsed in the next fire in 1706 and was rebuilt in the Gothic style in 1876. The sacristy and the chapter house in the Chapel of the Blessed Virgin of Consolation (also known as “Under the Eagles” on account of its décor) were also rebuilt at this time. The temple has functioned as a parish church since the Canons Regular convent was dissolved in 1810. The church became a cathedral after the creation of Kalisz diocese in 1992.
The Gothic temple is a three-nave, hall building with a rather narrow and low presbytery and a tower in its west façade. From the outside, it looks like a basilica. The presbytery has a 16th-century star vault while the nave and aisles have late-renaissance barrel vaults with lunettes from 1612 decorated in stucco. The baroque and rococo furnishings date from the 17th and 18th centuries. The monumental baroque high altar, built in 1662, once contained the painting Descent from the Cross by Peter Paul Rubens (c. 1620). The painting was probably destroyed by a fire in the altar in 1973. A copy now stands in its place.
The former monastery, a single-storey building on a rectangular plan, is past the northern side of the church. Most of the barrel-groin vaults and barrel vaults with lunettes have been preserved.
The Order of Canons Regular of St. Augustine of the Congregation of the Most Holy Saviour at the Lateran (CRL) grew out bishops’ communities during the 4th and 5th centuries. St. Augustine was its spiritual father and legislator. The Order official dates itself from the Lateran Synod of 1059 which reorganised it. The Canons Regular came to Poland at the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries and built their first Wielkopolska houses in Kalisz and Trzemeszno. The Order currently has no establishments in Wielkopolska.
Address:
ul. Kanonicka 5
62-800 Kalisz
Tel. +48 62 757 39 19