Construction of an evangelical church

Among the rights granted in 1768 to dissenters by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland was permission to erect religious buildings. On this basis, King Stanislaw August Poniatowski (1764-1795) issued on 15 January 1777 the privilege to build a temple for the Evangelical-Augsburg community in Warsaw. From among three proposed designs for the building, the monarch chose the classicist concept prepared by Szymon Bogumił Zug (1733-1807), inspired by the Roman Pantheon and the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Dresden.

The commencement of construction on 24 April 1777 is commemorated by a medal funded by the Evangelical community in Warsaw. The obverse depicts the sacred building surrounded by a Latin inscription, translating: ‘Hear everyone who prays in this place’ and with a horizontal inscription placed below: ‘On 24 April in the year of our Lord 1777, the 13th year of the reign of King Stanislaus Augustus’. Its reverse side is filled with a nine-line Latin inscription, translating to: ‘This temple dedicated to the Triune God Most High was erected by the Warsaw Assembly of Augsburg Confession with the permission of King Stanislaus August and the Republic of Poland’. It is worth knowing that the original, unrealised design of the building was reproduced on this medal. Already while minting the medal, Szymon Bogumił Zug introduced corrections in the architectural plan of the church. It concerned mainly the dome of the temple, to which a superstructure with glass columns was added. The solution admitted more light into the interior. Meanwhile, damage to the stamp made it necessary to produce a new obverse die, on which the modernisation of the plan of the building was taken into account. It is believed that fewer medals depicting the original architectural layout were struck. It is known that not only the Polish king received a gold copy of this work, but also, among others, the Empress Catherine II of Russia (1762-1796) and King Frederick II of Prussia (1740-1786), who were the guarantors of the rights granted to dissenters.

The author of the work is Jan Filip Holzhaeusser, court medal-maker of Stanisław August Poniatowski, whose signature can be found on the obverse next to that of Szymon Bogumił Zug.

The copy is most probably from the 19th century, made in the casting technique. Its diameter of 52.1 mm is less than 1 mm smaller than the original.

Tomasz Markiewicz