Interesting places

The present parish church and Carmelite monastery was founded by Baron Garnier between 1712 and 1724 and rebuilt after a fire in 1781.

It is a single-nave brick building with a straight wall to the east and a narrower presbytery with rectangular chapels to the sides. The rich interior decoration consists of the main and side altars, with Baroque wooden altars in separate chapels, polychromed with gilding. The altars contain Baroque paintings and sculptures.

The 23-voice organ was renovated in 1957.

The construction of the St. Charles Borromeo Church in Volnov is linked to the signing of the Altranstadt Convention in 1707, which granted the then only St. Lawrence Church in Volnov to the Protestant population. Deprived of its own magnificent church, the Catholic community, with the support of the Carmelites of Trzcinica Wielka (Głębowice), drew up a project for the construction of a church and monastery, which was to contribute to the creation of a thriving pastoral centre to support Catholics in the city. The funds in the amount of 10,000 guilders earmarked for the construction came mainly from Baron Jan Adam von Garnier, a cavalry colonel well-known at the court of the Viennese Habsburgs and distinguished in the Thirty Years' War. A site within the city walls in the northern part of the city, formerly the property of the Bishops of Wrocław, was designated for the construction. A total of 12 dwelling houses were bought and demolished and the construction of the monastery buildings began on the site obtained in the first place.

There is a legend connected with the beginnings of the construction. A chronicler of the time recorded that a very old image of the Virgin Mary was found while digging the foundations, indicating the existence of a rich Catholic history in the town. The image was held in great reverence by the inhabitants. It was placed on the altar, to the left of the main altar in the northern chapel of the so-called Brinckmann Chapel.

An inscription in Latin was also visible there: "In the year 1718 this image of the Blessed Virgin Mary was found with great joy in the foundations of this Carmel". Today the painting is housed in the St Lawrence Church.

On 5 July 1709, the Carmelites received permission from the authorities to begin building work. In doing so, they gave an undertaking that the monastery would not carry out competitive craft activities that would threaten the town. The first prior of the monastery under construction was Fr Matthew of St Bonaventure, who arrived in Wolow with two brothers on 19 July 1710. On 20 July 1713, exactly three years later, the foundation stone of the monastery was solemnly consecrated by the then abbot of the Cistercians of Lubsko, Fr Ludwik Banek.

The construction of the monastery and church was carried out for 11 years until 1724. The church was consecrated on 1 August 1730. At that time, the church was given the invocation - patrocinium: St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, cardinal and protector of the Carmelite Order.

Source: boromeuszwolow.pl