Description of the attraction
St. Casimir's Church is a baroque church founded by Jan III of Sebieski. The church is located in the center of Warsaw.
In 1688, according to the project of the leading Polish-Dutch architect Tilman Hamerski, the construction of the St. Casimir Church began at the expense of King Jan III of Sebieski and his wife in honor of the victory in the Battle of Vienna. The church was built in the style of Palladianism, an early form of classicism, based on strict adherence to symmetry.
In 1692 the church was consecrated. In the subsequent years of the 18th century, the side altars of St. Casimir and Our Lady were built, in 1745 a Rococo organ appeared near the church. The bells were replaced with new ones in 1752. In the second half of the 18th century, two tombs of members of the Sebesky family appeared in the church: Maria-Caroline and Maria-Josephine.
The church was badly damaged by a fire caused by a lightning strike in 1855. In 1873, renovation work began under the direction of Vladislav Kosmovski.
During World War II, the church was used as a hospital. The nuns placed the injured civilians in basements. In August 1944, they decided for the first time to deviate from their rules of helping only civilians and deployed wounded insurgents. Because of this, the church was heavily bombed, as a result of which 35 nuns and 1,000 civilians who were hiding in the basement were killed. The church was completely destroyed.
The reconstruction began in 1948 and lasted 4 years.
