St Joseph’s Church on Świętoduska Street was built for the Discalced Carmelite nuns during the seventeenth century. They had acquired an unfinished fortified residence belonging to Rafał Leszczyński in 1630 and adapted it into a convent, adding their own church alongside it. An agreement with the architect Jakub Tremanzel was signed in 1635, and the church was consecrated on 28 August 1644.
The religious community changed several times during the nineteenth century. Under Austrian rule, the nuns were ordered to move elsewhere, and Carmelite friars displaced by a fire at their own monastery took their place. The complex subsequently housed Visitation nuns before the friars returned in 1835. Following the January Uprising against Russian rule, the monastery was suppressed and its buildings converted into military barracks.
The adjoining monastery also has a much darker history. During the German occupation it served as a military prison for Poles suspected of underground resistance activities. In July and August 1944 it housed an NKVD (Soviet secret police) detention facility, followed by a communist security service prison. Communist military intelligence and prosecutors subsequently used the building, where members of the Home Army and National Armed Forces were imprisoned and brutally interrogated.
The interior is not overly decorative although the pillars, altar and ceiling do brighten matters up and I also rather like the distinctive flooring. I only took this one photograph as there was a nun in the chancel and I didn’t want to look like I was interfering with the whole arrangement. I must admit that I took over forty photos of a construction fence with images of Lublin in the 1930s and managed to take only one photo of this church, but who needs consistency?