Nil timide, nil tumide. About the oldest view of Strzelin and the finials of its towers

Zygmunt Łuniewicz

doi:10.37190/arc220103

Abstract

The article analyzes the newly discovered veduta of Strzelin and compares the buildings visible in it with the information contained in written sources and iconography. This panorama comes from the friendship book of Brzeg clergyman Johann Christoph Letsch (* 1634, † 1686). It presents the town from the north along with a ring of fortifications, buildings and towers of architectural dominants. Below the drawing there is the inscription Nil timide, nil tumide/Bartholomeus Pilgram/Strel. Consul Ao 1653/16 7-bris, which makes it possible to identify the author of the entry as Bartholomäus Pilgram, the mayor of Strzelin in the period of November 26, 1642 – December 11, 1671. The research procedure was aimed at verifying the reliability of the iconographic message with the methods used for the analysis of iconographic materials. They included a comparison of preserved buildings,archaeological relics as well as messages in written sources and iconography. In the course of the research, it was possible to confirm that the buildings shown in the view had shapes consistent with the data contained in written sources and the preserved relics. The relative location is correct, but with some reduction in the distance between the buildings. A unique value of the veduta are the only known representations of the towers’ copulas, i.e., on St. Michael’s Church, which was probably erected in 1596 or slightly later, and above St. Gotthard’s Church – a high, two-open-work dome from 1620, a missing element of the 17th-century remodeling. The town hall tower was presented with a two-open-work copula which was erected only five years earlier, in 1648, and was previously known from descriptions only. The depiction of de-sacralized St. Cross’ Church, which was devoid of the roof and the crowning of the tower, allows us to assume that originally the building had hitherto unknown gables. The towers and fortified towers of the town walls were drawn along with ceramic covered roofs with a short ridge and attics in the condition they obtained during the remodeling carried out in the same year as the entry was made. The date on the card, i.e. September 16, 1653, allows us to make the conclusion that the discussed source is 60 years older than the earliest known iconography of Strzelin. The panorama at Pilgram’s entry, despite a certain schematic character, allows us to expand the knowledge of the town’s architecture, in spite of almost complete destruction of a significant part of its building development.