But if communism didn’t allow religion, how did these churches get the go-ahead? It was down to a mixture of strong faith and pragmatic politics. “All the PZPR (Communist Party) first secretaries in towns such as Glogów were deeply religious and became party secretaries just for the sake of having a career,” explains architect Jerzy Gurawski in Day-VII Architecture. He designed three churches including Glogów’s Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of Poland. These functionaries needed somewhere to be married and to have their children baptised.
A new wave
Meanwhile, according to the authors, the biggest wave of church construction was triggered by a political event: the general walkouts organised by the influential labour union Solidarity in 1980. “In the aftermath of the strikes, the government made concessions to the Catholic Church,” explain the authors. “To alleviate the revolutionary mood… they began to issue previously unavailable building permits,” for churches.
Despite the visual feast that the best of these churches represents, their construction is perhaps even more extraordinary than their design. State-controlled building equipment was not available, and nor was there access to building materials. Both had to be borrowed, scavenged or invented, Heath-Robinson-style.