About the chapel
The shrine is in the first courtyard. The statue of the Virgin Mary stands on a pedestal stylized as a stone grotto. On the pedestal there is the inscription “O Mother OUR! Look after us on August 9, 1943 ”.
The chapel was built in thanks for saving the tenement’s inhabitants from being shot by the Germans. It was a miracle, as the Poles were leaning against the wall with a German machine gun pointed at them. During the Warsaw Uprising, funerals were held in the square in front of the statue and the dead were buried. In the memorable 1943, the inhabitants of the tenement house at ul. Brzeska 11.
Mr. Grzegorz Górniak, a resident of Brzeska for many years, whose parents, grandparents and great-grandparents also lived in this place, recalls the past. We can read them in Magdalena Stopa’s book “Warsaw Chapels”. Here is an excerpt from it:
“During the occupation, there was a round-up here. It is not known exactly why, someone shot here from the roof. The Germans threw all the inhabitants into the yard, they wanted to shoot them. They put a machine gun in the gate. One of the tenants, Mrs. Królikowska, saved the people. She was German by origin, Królikowska is her husband. During the occupation her two brothers served in the SS in Warsaw. They were the ones with skulls. Thanks to these contacts, she made sure that the inhabitants were not shot. And people set up this figure in thanksgiving. There is even a date there: year, month and day. It was in August forty-three, on the ninth of August. The statue is already sixty-five years old. Then, during the uprising, people were buried next to this statue. And when the Ruskies entered Praga, they were exhumed. Oh, and we had a way out of the yard. underground to Targowa Street. During the occupation, people were afraid to walk uphill, so they walked underground. “
You can visit the chapel in our virtual walk below.
