Piwna Street appeared in the history of Warsaw in 1353. That is when Mazovian Prince Ziemowit started to build the church and the monastery for the convent of Augustians. Piwna is the longest street of the Old Town as it is 250 meters long. It changed its name a few times although the name ‘Piwna Street’ appeared in 1439. Other names of this street were Mnichów Street and Szynkarska Street. In the middle of the XVI century one part of the street was St Martin’s Street and the other part, from Piekarska to Dunaj, was Piwna Street. The entire street was again called Piwna in 1743.
At the beginning of the street’s historical existence the buildings along it were wooden. In 1478 the fire, which started next to Dunaj Street, destroyed all the buildings and the church. Only the monastery survived. The church was later reconstructed, the monastery was enlarged, a hospital and a brewery were added there. The convent of Augustians (who came from the Czech Republic) was famous for the temperament of its monks and their love of fun and alcohol. Their all-night-long parties once caused the bishop’s wrath and the fact that they loved music made them famous between the dwellers of Warsaw. Even the religious announcements were made from the tower of the church with the use of horns and drums.
From the time when Mazovia was annexed into the Crown, the meetings of the noblemen took place on the terrain of the church. The next fire burst out in 1580 but the destroyed possessions were soon rebuilt. In 1659 all the odd part of Piwna Street was covered with buildings. In the XVII century Piwna Street was inhabited by rich townspeople: merchants, goldsmiths, royal clerks and craftsmen. According to the population list from 1792, this street and Swiętojańska Street were mostly populated. 1100 people lived there at that time. They were mainly tailors, merchants and clerks.

   At Piwna Street, which was called before Szynkarska Street and later Marcinkańska Street, there are several buildings connected with the town’s history from the Middle Ages until today. At number 13 there was, established in 1444 by Princess Anna Mazowiecka, Warsaw’s first hospital of Panny Marcinianki, and a poor-house. It was here until 1825 when it was moved to Przyrynek Street and later to Konwiktorska Street. Since 1861 its seat is in a building on Elektoralna Street. In a rebuilt façade, the XVIII century gate was preserved. The memorial plate reminds us that a famous royal medical Wojciech Oczko (1537 – 1600) lived here. On the turn of the XVIII and the XIX century, at 47/95 Piwna Street lived Antoni Magier. He was an excellent physicist, meteorologist, diarist, professor and also eccentric and gossiper. He had his meteorological observatory there. He was Warsaw’s historian as well as a member of Warszawskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk (Warsaw’s Society of the Friends of Science). Today he is known as an author of “Estetyka Warszawy”, which gives an interesting picture of the town life from the turn of the XVIII and the XIX century. The tenement is decorated with the modern picture of its famous and interesting inhabitant. At number 6 Piwna in the ruins of the house, an old woman settled immediately after the Germans left. The old woman is now a legend. She took care of pigeons, she was the main character of many films and pictures, she became a kind symbol of the historical permanence of the city. Her house was commemorated by Halina Kosmólska-Szulc, whose stony sculpture shows a flock of pigeons.

   St Martin’s Church of Augustians and the monastery are very impressive buildings. St Martin’s Church is one of three sanctuaries on Warsaw’s Old Town. It was built in 1352 by Mazovian Prince Ziemovit III and his wife Eufemia, to be the seat of the convent of Augustians (who came from Silesia). The monks settled in the monastery building adjoining the church, and they took care of the sanctuary for five centuries until 1863. St Martin’s Church played a special role in the monarchy. It was the favourite church of the Polish monarchs. Famous meetings of the noblemen took place here, each at its patron’s altar. In the XV century the church was given, probably by Mazovian dukes, the picture of Matka Boska Bolesna, painted by an unknown author. This painting, placed on the main altar, was worshipped by the people of Warsaw as the picture of Matka Boska Pocieszenia and it became famous because of its wonders.

   Tsar Aleksander II closed the convent in 1863 for taking part in January uprising. The monks were forced o leave the monastery. The church was then managed by Warsaw’s archbishop. Three great fires, in 1478, 1669 and 1888, almost completely destroyed the church. Each rebuilding caused divergence in the original Gothic architecture. During the Warsaw’s uprising, in 1944, the renaissance and baroque church and the monastery were completely destroyed with priceless relics, sculptures and works of art coming from the last centuries. The fire destroyed whole building and caused that its roof collapsed. Many civilians and insurgents (among them priest Marcin Skopowski – rector of the church) died in the ruins of the church. After the war in 1951 – 53, the authorities rebuilding the Old Town gave money to rebuild the façade and the roof of the church. They were rebuilt in their XVIII century form. The monastery, with its XVIII century tower, was also rebuilt. In the 50’s there were projects to change the church into a museum. In December 1956, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, the bishop of Warsaw, asked the convent of Siostry Franciszkanki Służebnice Krzyża from Laski who took care of the blind, to rebuild the church. The nuns also got the new monastery. The supervisors of the construction were Jan Grudziński and Beata Trylinska. The inside of the sanctuary was designed by Alma Skrzydlewska, a nun who was an interior designer. Old baroque architecture got new interior, better adapted to liturgical function. The cost of the reconstruction was defrayed from the church and its followers’ money.
The main entrance to the church is on Piwna Street. The church porch is separated from the nave by iron bars filled with glass. Its modern shape harmonizes with red stained-glass window which can be seen above the main altar. The benches in the nave are made in a modern manner but some signs of the baroque architecture can be seen in them. Coming inside we can see a huge crucifix, the work of Jerzy Machaj. Its background is made of green and grey sandstone, which was fetched from Brenna, Silesia. Also two side walls of the presbytery and both altars are covered with the same sandstone.
Under the cross, there is Ołtarz Najświętrzego Sakramentu (Altar of the Holiest Sacrament), in so called monastic choir, where nuns gather for prayers. The main altar is in the narrowing of the presbytery. Its front is turned to the people. This solution came before the liturgy reform of the II Vatican Council. Under the arms of the cross, there are scratched profiles of Matka Boska Bolesna on the left and St John on the right.
The side sculptures in sandstone show St Martin as a knight sharing his mantle with a poor person and as a bishop. They were sculptured by Anna Grocholska. Both altars are made of simple blocks of marble, without any ornaments. Their simplicity is emphasized by wrought iron candlesticks. Flowers play an important part here as they are colourful composition harmonizing with the architecture and liturgy.
Inside the right nave there is a chapel of Matka Boska Pocieszenia. The painting, which is there, is a copy of the one given to he church by the family of Mazovian dukes in the XV century. Four angels keep the implements of the Lord’s suffering. People at the bottom are its founders. The original of this painting as well as four gothic sculptures, made in the school of Wit Stwosz (the greatest sculptor of the Renaissance) burned during the uprising of 1944.

   The side doors of the church, in the left nave, lead to the pleasure garden of the monastery. Glazed iron bars show the profiles of the young insurgent in German helmet with a gun and a woman with a child in her arms. They are both embraced by flames. Above it there is inscription in Latin: ‘The Earth is full of the Lord’s Mercy’. Through the door we can go to a small pleasure garden in Italian style, surrounded by a beautiful gallery. The entrance to the monastery is on Piwna Street, at the foot of a gothic tower which remembers the times of the convent of Augustinians. The plate on the wall contains text of a traditional scout’s oath. One of the plates on the gallery commemorates insurgents’ squad which didn’t give up fighting for the church in 1944.
   The oldest relic of the church is the gothic sculpture from the XV century which presents Madonna with baby Jesus. The sculpture is made of gilt wood. It is on the left side of St Franciszek chapel, next to the altar.
The entrance to St Franciszek chapel is where the left side nave ends. The chapel is intimate, peaceful and simple. There are fragments of gothic walls here: the antique arch above the entrance, and inside on the right – fragments of the old wall. The altar is a thick plate of sandstone leaning on a base from bricks. On mounted stone there is a picture of bread and fish – a symbol of Eucharist. On the wall, next to the altar, on the right there is a wall painting of St Franciszek. In the basement, to which steps in front of the burned crucifix lead, there is a chapel commemorating the victims of war who don’t have their graves. Also in the basement we can find a modern sculpture of worrying Christ, made by Anna Grocholska.
Grated niche in the pillar, between the main nave and the end of the right nave, contains a coffin with the ashes of priest Władysław Korniłowicz, who was Stefan Wyszyński’s and many representatives of the Polish intelligence mental father. He was also a precursor of the Polish ecumenism.

From the pre-war furnishings of the church the lower part of the crucifix, which is on the right side pillar of the main nave, was preserved. The upper part of Christ body is made of iron and it symbolises the rise of the capital from ruins. This composition is surrounded by plates commemorating dead scouts, prisoners of concentration centres, pilots, parachutists, uhlan regiments and thousands of fighters for freedom and independence of the country. The church organs fill the side arch of the main nave. They are used to liturgy. There is a sculpture behind the entrance bars and the left which shows St Eligiusz, patron saint of guilds. From the stairs of the Jesuit church, there is a magnificent view of the clock tower of the Royal Castle. On the other side at number 21 ‘Dom Metrykantów’, which comes from 1676, can be seen. ‘Metrykanci’ were people who kept books to which royal documents were inscribed. The plate, which is placed on the front of the building, informs that the owners of the house had some special privileges. They didn’t have to give living accommodation to the noblemen who came to Warsaw’s noblemen gatherings. Beautiful portal and stony window frames call our attention here as well as eagle hammered into shape in a stone, from 1718, which is above the portal of the second façade of this building. This eagle was walled up on the order of the invader’s authorities after the fall of the November uprising. It was revealed by chance in 1909, when the building was being restored.

For centuries Piwna Street has been extremely famous. The facts that Wiech (Stefan Wiechecki) placed here his ‘Café Pod Minogą’ and that the beer brewed here is well known because of the song ‘because there’s beer on Piwna Street’, can prove that.

© Gimnazjum 30