Description of the attraction
The Church of the Holy Spirit is a historical sacral building that is now being used for other purposes. The building of the church is currently owned by an elementary school, which has arranged in it an ordinary gymnasium, equipped with a dressing room on the basement floor.
The Church of the Holy Spirit was built at the hospital of the same name, founded in the 13th century by the Lords of the Order of the Holy Spirit, who in Poland were called “duhakuvs”. It was a secular and not a monastic organization. Probably, both the order itself and the hospital got their name from the name of the street where their building was located.
In 1357, the hospital was moved to a building located at the intersection of Tobias and IV Groble streets. Partially restored after the destruction of the Second World War, the building of the former hospital is still there. If you go around it from the side of Tobias Street, you can see the ancient portal, on which a bas-relief with images of a poor man and woman begging for alms has been preserved.
A small chapel appeared next to the hospital in the 15th century, where everyone who suffered could find peace. Colossal funds were received at the hospital of the Holy Spirit: ordinary people donated to the maintenance of the orphan and the poor, the elders, who are living out their last days here, wrote off their property to the hospital. That is why the management of the hospital spared no expense in expanding the Church of the Holy Spirit. The small temple soon acquired a spacious interior, consisting of two naves. The north nave was a hospital, and the hospital's patients gathered there for divine services. And the south nave was common and used by parishioners from the city. The service was conducted for everyone at once. A little later, the church was rebuilt, removing the nave from the hospital side. The church became an independent unit and was no longer subject to the hospital of the Holy Spirit.
