By Norbert Piwowarczyk
3 July 2003

The beautiful Baroque Church of the Immaculate Conception stands near the northern border of Warsaw on the bank of the Vistula river within Bielany district. This was once a monastery of the Camaldolese order.

Camaldolese monks were brought to Warsaw by King Vladislav IV in 1639 and granted the neighboring land. It was then that the wooden chapel and hermitages were built using royal funds. The order's regulations required that monks lived in separate cells in very modest conditions.

But the church, as a royal foundation, could not possibly be a modest structure, especially because the project was sponsored by the succeeding kings, John Casimir and Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki, who frequently visited the palace. In 1669, Michał Korybut ordered the construction of a new church. The present shape of the church, in late Baroque style, emerged only in the years 1733-1758. The designer is unknown. Commemorative plaques inside the shrine specify only the royal sponsors and Chamberlain Jan Kazimierz Brzeziński.

The body of the church is covered by a vault, spreading over the interior like a sail. It is the only example in Warsaw of such a design. The fac, ade is narrow, decorated with figures of Saint Benedict and Romuald, the founder of the order. Above the door is the order's crest and two pigeons drinking from a cone-the symbol of fraternity between the Camaldolese and Benedictine orders. At the top of the fac, ade is the emblem of the Polish Kingdom: the Polish eagle and the arms of Lithuania. The interior is decorated with Rococo stucco work and murals by Michelangelo Palloni (17th c.) and numerous paintings from the 18th century. Also in Bielany are charming alleys running between former monks' houses, crests on house walls, the bust of Stanisław Staszic buried there, and the paintings and sculptures in the church.

In the 19th century, many orders, including the Camaldolese order, were closed down on the territory of the Polish Kingdom, under the Russian czar's decree. Monks from other orders where then brought here to die in the local hermitages. Later on, the church was to be transformed into an Orthodox Church, but eventually the Wawrzyszew parish was moved there, saving the church. At that time, the nearby Lasek Bielański forest was the destination for Varsovians' Sunday walks; the picnics held here every Sunday, mentioned in the songs of Maria Koterbska of the 1950s, became a Warsaw tradition.

Today, Lasek Bielański is still a favorite recreational place but festive picnics are held only on Pentecost. In order to revive the old tradition, a carousel was opened recently within the local playground, made of wood by Józef Wilkoń, an artist. The present parish priest does his best to attract Varsovians to Bielany and to make a cultural center of this charming place. Concerts, exhibitions and performances are held in the church. The parish priest, Fr. Wojciech Drozdowicz, co-organizes them with Ewa Błaszczyk's A Kogo? Foundation. The cultural program is extremely rich. It was in Bielany that the premiere of Roman Triptych by Pope John Paul II, directed by Ryszard Peryt, was held. A cafe recently opened in the church's cellar, where, surrounded by catacombs, you can have tea and admire the exhibitions, or listen to concerts and watch films. July 6-Aug. 3, every Sunday at midday, concerts within the Second Bielański Festival of Sacred Music will be held here.

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