page_title: Bydgoszcz Cathedral
section_title: Expansion of the 16th-18th century
hierarchical_section_title: Bydgoszcz Cathedral / History / Expansion of the 16th-18th century
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Katedra Bydgoska
context_page_description: St. Martin and St. Nicholas Cathedral, or simply known as Bydgoszcz Cathedral, is a Catholic church built in the 15th century. It has a Gothic style, serves as a parish church and cathedral of the Diocese of Bydgoszcz. It also houses a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary. Its address is 10 Farna Street.
  It is the most valuable architectural monument of the Old Town, standing on the Brda riverside. It has been elevated as a cathedral on March 25, 2004, by decision of then Pope John Paul II. Since November 3, 1960, the cathedral has been registered on the Kuyavian-Pomeranian heritage list.
context_section_description: At the end of the 15th century, roofs were elevated, using pine wood, brought via the Brda river and chopped on the spot, the gable and the presbytery roofs were star-shapped vaulted. At the same time, the church's southern steeple was attached to the main corps.
  From 1466 to 1617, three quadrangular chapels were erected and attached to the main body, while a fourth chapel was built at the location of the former presbytery entrance. In 1559, a turret carrying a light bell cast by master Andrzej was set up at the edge of the nave roof; another bell was suspended there in 1668. In 1702, it was replaced by a baroque turret, covered with bronze. It still stands today: it is octagonal and has a roof lantern. A new bell was ordered for this realization to bell-founder Absalom Wittwerck from Gdańsk.
  In 1585, a Gothic rectangular sacristy was erected, abutting the northern chancel wall: an inscription from 1585 was discovered after the Second World War beneath the plaster of the window sill. Between 1712 and 1745, part of the wooden barrel vault ceiling between the two storeys was replaced by a lunette. In the 1650s, major construction and renovation works started:
  the tower received a third storey, as one can see today;
  a mannerist style porch was built adjacent to the west façade, with an open vestibule in the basement;
  the western part of the timber roof truss over the nave body was replaced after 1651, according to dendrochronology research, including the repair of the tower stairs.
  Under the chancel floor were six vaulted burial crypts:
  Two were realised in the eastern part of the north aisle, under the altars of the Virgin Mary and St. Lawrence of Rome;
  The other four were matched with the foundations of the four chapels.
  Between 1712 and 1745, the whitewashed walls of the sacristy, the chancel, the nave and the pillars between the naves were covered in some places with figural polychromes. Other decorative element of the walls were tombstone epitaphes. Most of altars and religious furniture from before the Polish partition were destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars.
  Larger roof repairs occurred also at the end of the 17th century, after the destruction by the fire in 1684 of the abutting watermill: during the fire, the wind directed the flames to the northern façade of the church. It took 15 years to clean and repair these heavy damages. The catastrophe brought other diocesan parish priests, from 1712 to 1763, to write about the state of quasi-ruin of the temple and its associated buildings, which contrasted with the good condition of other city monasteries and conventual churches: the Carmelites, the Bernardines, the Jesuits. The church, however, survived in this poor position until the start of the partitions of Poland, although no major emergency investment was made.
caption: Chapel of the Holy Cross, built in 1617
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