Kościół św. Wojciecha, Bytom

St. Adalbert's Church in Bytom - parish church in Bytom, built in the mid-15th century. It is ministered by Franciscans.

The first wooden church with a monastery for the Franciscans brought by Prince Wladyslaw Opolski in 1258 was built in Bytom between 1257 and 1258. It bore the name of St. Nicholas.

As a result of the Hussite Wars, the Franciscans were expelled from the city in 1430 by the townspeople sympathetic to the Hussites. In 1440 the Observant branch of the order came to Bytom. Before 1450 they rebuilt the church and monastery, replacing the wooden buildings with brick ones. On May 20, 1454, the Bernardine reformer and preacher, St. John of Capistrano, gave a sermon in the church.

In view of the growing Reformation in the last years of the 16th century, the Bernardines were forced to leave the monastery. They returned to it in 1605, on the wave of the Counter-Reformation. The church and monastery suffered further damage during the Thirty Years War. In the 18th century the church was rebuilt in Baroque style. A nave, a tower with a porch and a new facade were added, the interior was baroqueized and a new organ was installed.

In 1810 the property of the Bernardine Order in Prussia was secularized. The building of the monastery in Bytom was taken over by the city and used as a school, the church was used as a warehouse, and in 1833 it was sold to the Evangelical parish.

After the end of World War II, due to the displacement of the German population, the church was left without worshippers. The temple was occupied by Catholics, under the leadership of Father Zygmunt Staniszewski, a forced displaced person from the Eastern Borderlands. The church was then given its present name. Formally, the building was given to the Catholic Church in 1947, in exchange for the return of the church in Katowice, which had also been occupied earlier.

Since 1950, an independent cure was established at the church, erected by the apostolic administrator, Father Boleslaw Kominek, and in 1952 - the parish of St. Adalbert. In the same year the care for the temple was taken over again by the Friars Minor. The reconstruction of the church was completed in 1964.

St. Adalbert Church in Bytom is a single-nave, hall Baroque church with a Gothic presbytery, built of brick with elements of stone. Most of the interior furnishings are modern; two 18th century Baroque statues of St. Peter and St. Paul have remained from the old equipment. Since 1997 the parish has been in possession of the relics of St. Adalbert, which were brought from Prague through the efforts of the parish priest, Father Bartholomew Kuznik.

The church is the temple of the Monastery of Friars Minor of the Assumption Province of the Order of Friars Minor in Katowice. The monastery and the parish office are located across from the church.