Kolegiata pw. NMP Wniebowziętej, Środa Wielkopolska

Collegiate Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Środa Wielkopolska - a Gothic church from the early 15th century. Extended at the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by adding side aisles and a tower. In the middle of the 16th century the tower was crowned with the Renaissance attic. In 1598-1602 a Renaissance burial chapel of the Gostomskis was added from the south. Star vaults in the aisles, cross-ribbed vaults in the presbytery.

In the late Renaissance main altar there are six Renaissance statues of saints and a painting of the Assumption of Mary by an unknown painter, based on a composition by Peter Paul Rubens; in the coping there is a painting of the Madonna and Child by the Italian painter Catharini from the 16th century. On the walls of the presbytery there are two paintings from the Flemish school, 17th century: The Exaltation of the Cross and The Denial of St. Peter. Late Gothic stalls from the foundation of Bishop Jan Lubrański made in 1519-1522 by brothers Jan and Leon from Września. On the rood beam, a late-Gothic polychromed Passion Group from the beginning of the 16th century. In the side altars there is an Italian painting of the Holy Family from about 1670 and in the rococo frame there is a painting of Michael the Archangel 1654, from the school of Wielkopolska. In the walls, three Renaissance reliefs, presumably remains of an altar or sacramentarium: God the Father, the Last Supper, and the Holy Spirit, and a Renaissance tombstone of Ambroży Pampowski, Sieradz voivode. In the main nave there is a chandelier-spider made of Venetian crystal. In the pillar, a memorial plaque of priest Augustyn Szamarzewski, a mansioner of Środa, 1857-1887, one of the pioneers of the cooperative movement in Wielkopolska. A Renaissance chapel of the Gostomskis, founded by Hieronim Gostomski, governor of Poznań, on an octagonal plan, covered with an octagonal cupola. Portal with a bronze lattice, the work of Gdańsk master Krzysztof Olendorf from 1598. In the chapel there are two tombstones. The first one is a wall-mounted, early baroque, of brown and pink marble, a two-storey tombstone of Anna of Ostroroga Sieniawska; on the tombstone there is an inscription of her daughter, provincial governor Urszula Gostomska; the second one, a child's tombstone of brown and pink marble belongs to Zygmunt Stadnicki. Both tombstones are empty and the deceased are buried in the crypt under the chapel. In the altar there are two paintings of the Italian school: The Holy Trinity from the 17th century and the Holy Family from the 16th century. The chapel currently serves as the Chapel of Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.

By decision of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments on December 16, 2021, the church was raised to the rank of basilica minor.

Pastors and prefects of Środa: Dytryk, Bartłomiej Rynek: 1423-1426, Władysław Oporowski: 1426-1448, Stanisław Pleszewski: 1448 - 1494, Bernard Lubrański: 1494 - 1499, Paweł Szydłowiecki: 1500 - 1505, Mikołaj Żukowski : 1505 - 1509, Jan Łaski: 1509 - 1510, Mikołaj Żukowski: 1510, Andrzej Krzycki: 1510 - 1527, Mikołaj Jaktorowski: 1527 - 1539, Jakub Wedelicki of Oborniki: 1539 - 1555, Piotr of Poznań: 1555 - 1569, Ventricius Jan of Poznań: 1569 - 1584, Piotr Lilia: 1585 - 1604, Maciej Łubieński: 1606 - 1627, Stanisław Sierakowski: 1627 - 1636, Krzysztof Charbicki: 1636 - 1639, Teofil Wolicki: 1794 - 1828, Marceli Weychan: 1830 - 1890, Ludwik Jażdżewski: 1890 - 1911, Mieczysław Meissner: 1911 - 1936, Stanisław Janicki: 1936 - 1940, Jan Krajewski: 1945 - 1979, Aleksander Rawecki: 1979 - 2010, Janusz Śmigiel: since 2010