The So-called Copernicus’ Chapel: a Jubilee Creation in the Gothic St John’s Cathedral in Toruń

Abstract

The article is devoted to the history of transformation and re-arrangement of the first from the West chapel on the South side of the Gothic parish church of the Old Town in Toruń, at present the Toruń Cathedral of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. The former merchants’ chapel dedicated to St Nicholas over its history had changed its furnishing and patrocinium twice (St Michael the Archangel/ The Guardian Angels), which had been dictated by religious needs. In the 19th century it had also assumed the function of baptismal chapel and in 1973 – the Copernicus Jubilee Year – gained an entirely new arrangement to suit the memoria of the astronomer, who was born in this town. From than on it is universally referred to “The Copernicus Chapel”. The Authors analyse the historic grounds for that commemoration (the Copernicus memorabilia collected in that interior), the principles of its new arrangement with the use of Medieval elements of the church furnishing, the elements of historic and emotional narrative as well as the contemporary implications of that creation.