MEDIEVAL HALL CHURCHES IN SILESIA. PART 1. CHURCHES IN THE 13th C.
 
HANNA KOZACZEWSKA-GOLASZ
 
 
The 13th century was a period in which we can observe fast development of sacral architecture, starting from early gothic architecture through a short phase of gothic called classical gothic, to gothic architecture developed at the end of the century. A hall design was used to build 9 parish churches, 4 abbey churches and a collegiate building. The parish churches had short 3– 4-bay naves, except for the churches in Grodków and Złotoryja, where there were 5 bays. Until the mid 13th century the chancels of these churches were built on a plan of a rectangle, aisles were closed with straight walls from the eastern side and churches   did not have any towers.
The new spatial design was to be used in a Cistercian church in Henryków, whose construction started about 1230. The hall design was planned for a three-aisle chancel closed with a straight wall from the eastern side and surrounded with chapels. After 1241 the concept was changed, the height of the nave was increased and thus the church became a basilica.
From the first half of the 13th century, external walls of churches were supported on buttresses although the naves were left without vaults. Most probably only chancels were vaulted, which can be seen in one of the best preserved chancels in the Church of St. Valery in Wrocław. The vault is divided into six sections and supported on attached shafts in the corners of the interior near pilasters in the middle part of walls and on brackets. In the Franciscan church in Wrocław, the body of the nave was vaulted too, ribs would go down the walls to pilasters with attached shafts in the corners. In Henryków vaulting was supported on attached shafts in the corners and indirect brackets.
In the chancel of the parish church in Grodków, the construction of which started about 1250, ribs are joined at clusters of bi-level, suspended attached shafts with decorative heads. The body of the church in Grodków was enriched with a sacristy and an open porch. The only sacristy found earlier was the sacristy in the Church of St. Valery in Wrocław.
The third quarter of the 13th century was the time when both the bodies of parish churches and their interiors became more complex. The west end of the chancel is no longer rectangular, it became a three-sided structure (Głubczyce, Racibórz) and two western towers were added to the naves (Złotoryja, Głubczyce, Racibórz). Not only chancels but also the naves were covered by cross-ribbed vaulting. Various ways of supporting ribs: in Złotoryja – clusters of attached shafts going down to the floor; in Głubczyce one pillar was crossed with attached shafts and all other pillars are eight-sided without attached shafts, however, near walls there are clusters of attached shafts, while in Racibórz there are suspended attached shafts, and in the nave only brackets were used and there are no attached shafts.
At the turn of 1268 and 1269 the construction of a Cistercian church in Trzebnica was started with erecting St. Hedwig Chapel with its interior divided by numerous clusters of attached shafts reaching the floor. However, in a Cistercian church in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, the construction of which started a little later on – in 1272, attached shafts were given up completely, ribs are set in walls or pillars. Even in the lower part of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross, in the chancel there are semi detached pillars, however, in the transept, which was vaulted until 1290, and in the body of the church the lower part of walls was simple without any additional elements, ribs are set in walls just like in the upper chancel completed in 1295.
At the end of the 13th century, the classical division into attached shafts was given up completely. This way of shaping interiors, so characteristic for Silesian architecture, was different from classical gothic architecture and led to the developed gothic forms in the 14th century.
From the first quarter of the 13th c. on the outside walls of hall church there were buttresses thanks to which the architectural style of churches looked more gothic. Initially their bodies were simple, rectangular structures, however, in the third quarter of the century, they were enriched with polygonal chancels and two western towers. The height of elevation increased as well as the number of buttresses and windows. Churches started in the 4th quarter of the 13th c. – the Collegiate Church of the Holy Cross in Wrocław and the Cistercian church in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, present extensive, high bodies of the developed gothic architecture.
 
Keywords: Silesia, gothic architecture, hall churches