Augsburg Evangelical Church of the Holy Trinity

Protestants began appearing in Warsaw at the start of the Reformation, and had been trying to establish their own parish since the reign of Stephen Báthory (1576–1586). Their efforts were unsuccessful, as the practice of any religion other than Roman Catholicism was expressly forbidden in Mazovia during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Protestants were granted religious freedom by the Seym [parliament] in 1768, and the parish was granted a royal charter to build a church by King Stanislaus Augustus in 1777. Szymon Bogumił Zug was personally selected by the educated and enlightened monarch to design the building. The main criterion was that the church was not to have any towers, as it was feared that ‘they would scandalise the Catholic clergy’.

Over the subsequent years, the church thrived. During the first decades of the nineteenth century, as well as being a religious centre, it was also a popular concert venue, and many outstanding musicians performed here. We know, for instance, that in April 1825 Fryderyk Chopin played the aeolomelodicon before Tsar Alexander I and that the ruler presented him with a diamond ring for his performance. It can be supposed that Chopin had appeared in the church before this, albeit in a less prominent role. For instance, he and his sister Ludwika most likely sang in the chorus in a performance of Haydn’s The Creation, with Józef Jawurek conducting, in December 1824.