St Andrew Bobola Church (Church of Grace)

One of the six Silesian Churches of Grace. The Protestants of Milicz owed it to the Convention of Altranstädt of 1707: the Swedish King Charles XII, having marched his army through Silesia, forced Emperor Joseph I to return more than a hundred confiscated churches and to allow six new ones to be built – in Jelenia Góra, Kamienna Góra, Kożuchów, Żagań, Cieszyn and here in Milicz.

The church was built in 1709–1714 to a design by Gottfried Hoffmann of Oleśnica, with substantial support from the Maltzan family, the lords of Milicz. It is a half-timbered structure – a wooden frame filled with clay and brick – laid out on a Greek-cross plan. The tower was originally about 59 metres tall; in 1789, when it threatened to collapse, it was shortened to 49 metres.

The interior is ringed by three tiers of wooden galleries, which allowed the church to hold a very large congregation. The organ loft houses a 19th-century organ by the Wilhelm Sauer firm of Frankfurt (Oder).

After the Second World War the church was taken over by Catholics and dedicated to St Andrew Bobola. In 1955 the Baroque pulpit, the font and the bronze chandelier were moved to the cathedral in Poznań. Since 1994 it has served as a parish church and is being gradually restored.