Stage I

In 2008 bthe project titled Rehabilitation and Conversion of St. John's Church into Gdansk to St. John's Centre - Stage I - recived a subsidy from the Regional Operational Programme for the Pomorskie Voivodeship for 2005 - 2013, which made it possible to speed up the reconstruction and conservation works and conversion of the building into a culture centre.
 

In the framework of the project in years 2009 - 2012 the following works where carried out:

- conservation of the south elevation and of the tower, and a major overhaul of the roof. During the elevation works, the decorative ornamental friezes (and a tower clock) were reconstructed on the basis of dicovered fragments and archive materials;

- conservation of the church interior: walls, valuts, pillars, the Holy Spirit Chapel, the tower porch and the Zappiom family valut; conservation of the tombstones and placing them in the reconstructed stone flooring; reconstruction of the carved door;

- conservation of the pieces of art that constitued parts of the historical furnishing, which survived thanks to the evacuation in 1943 - 1944, and after the war were scattered among various places and warehouses in Gdańsk, Among the pieces of art that returned to the  church are: epitaphs od Adelgunda Zappio, Jan Hutzingus, Wawrzyniec Fabricius, Tomasz Movius and Urlich Kanzler, a carved to of the Stalla Snycerzy (the stall of wood carvers), a series o paintings Panny mądre i głupie (The Wies and the Foolish Virgins), sculptures of St. Catherine and the Archangel Miachel, the babtismal chapel and gothic stalls;

- construction and adaptation works: the interior of the church tower was fully adapted for the needs of the cultural centre: a complex of modern wardrobes was created there;

- modern galleries were made on the western wall - lower one for the sake of the stage, and upper one as communicational link beetween the tower and the church inetrior;

- the church was furnished with modern technical devices which are indespensable for the Cultural Centre: a stage and traveses on which the profesional lighting and sounding equipment was installed, as well as a system of dimming the gothic window with the use of electrically operated blinds, multimedia equpiment and lamps that iluminated the church interior, and last but not least a number of suivel chairs for the audience;

- in order to create space for the administrative and social bas of the St. John's Centre two small tenement houses and link building leading to the church interior were reconstructed


As a result of the project a modern-shaped St. John's Centre was created - a well equipped hall for the spectacles and concerts and an original space for exhibitions of both sdacral and modern art.


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