St. John's Protestant church

he present Jesuit church throughout 60 years of its history was a Protestant church and it belonged to the German minority in Lodz. The initiator of its foundation was pastor Gustaw Manitius, who came to Lodz in 1853. We all know, however, how long it takes from an idea to its realisation. Fortunately, the German minority consisted mainly of rich factory owners who were eager to support the building of the church. On 17th February 1876 a commitee to co-ordinate the building has been created. Its members were: W.Scheibler, L.Grohman, R.Wergau, A.Starke oraz K.Bennich. They have also chosen the architect whose task was to create a project of the church. It was Ludwik Luis Scheibler, who was a member of the Scheibler family. He has achieved a great effect by connecting the neo-roman archtecture with some French and Italian elements. The building work was commissioned to Robert Nastler's company. Because of such lively interest, the church has been finished by 8th October 1884 and it was consecrated then. The first headpriest was pastor Wilhelm Peter Angertein. The church has lasted in this state until the II World War, which changed the lot of all the Germans in Lodz. After the war the church was occupied by the Jesuits and the Protestants have never returned.

Ever since its beginning the sanctuary was the place of meetings and the center of Protestant religious life. The Church Society had many members, mainly factory owners and creftsmen. They organised many entertainments, orchestra concerts and sports events.

Along with years the church was getting more devastated. Finally, it has reached the state when the experts were astonished that it has not collapsed yet. At that time Mr. Waldemar Bohdanowicz, who was a city councillor, with his bare hands removed a brick from the wall and took it to the City Office. This symbolical gesture was the beginning of the repairing work. However, most of the money was donated by the city. This is mainly because present factory owners are not as generous as Scheibler.

The repairing work is being done by the best Polish specialists, namely Mr. Peter Bialko's company wich has aldready reconstructed many historical buildings in the whole country. On behalf of the Jesuit order the repairing is supervised by priest Jozef Lagwa. The members of the social renovation commitee are: Mr. Kazimierz Boberek, who takes care of all work, Professor Krzysztof Stefanski (the author of the book we have based this page on), Sedzimierz Furmanczyk, Kazimierz Kmieciak, Jozef Kokoszka, Wojciech Szygendowski and Janusz Warszawa.

During the reconstructions, some interesting discoveries were made. It turned out that the towers have a brick roof, which has been hidden under another tile roof for a long time. Now the tiles have been taken away and the bricks were impregnated so that they don't let the water pass through. Another discovery was that there had been planned four small towers surrounding the main tower. However, they weren't built in 1884 because of unknown reasons. But they will be built now in order to achieve concordance between the plans and the real state.

The greatest surprise was a metal ball under the cross. There was a letter hidden inside, which had been left there 20th September 1883 and read the following: "Like us, who have built this sanctuary despite the obstacles, let our successors treat it with care and not lose heart in their work." Presently, the reperation commitee decided to add its own letter to the found document so that anyone who finds it in a hundred years was as surprised as they were.