Church of Saint Joseph of the Visitationists

The Visitationist Church has a rich history in Warsaw. It was first established in 1651 by Queen Marie Louise Gonzaga de Nevers as a wooden church for the French Order of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The initial purpose of the church's construction was to provide a refuge for the nuns of the Order of the Visitation. However, it was burned down by the Swedes during the Deluge in 1656.

Construction of a new oblong church began in 1664, with the first stone laid by primate Wacław Leszczyński. Unfortunately, this church also burned down in 1695 before it could be completed. The church was restored again, with a new foundation laid in 1728 by stateswoman Elżbieta Sieniawska and her private architect Karol Antoni Bay. The structural work was finished in 1761 and the finishing touch was finally given in 1765.

Famous Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin is known to have played the church organ here, primarily during services for schoolchildren. In front of the late-baroque church stands a statue of Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, primate of Poland from 1948 to 1981.

The facade of the church is one of the most interesting elements of the building. Its lower part is likely the work of Karol Bay, who created a piece characteristic of the mature Baroque period (there is also a hypothesis that its designer was Gaetano Chiaveri). The undulating wall, divided by pairs of columns, an elaborate broken cornice, creates excellent light and shadow effects and enriches the structure of the building. The crowning of the facade is slightly flatter, and its authorship is attributed to Efraim Szreger or Jakub Fontana. Above the portal, there is the coat of arms of the Order of Visitation, a heart pierced by arrows and topped with a cross. In the tympanum, there is a motif of the Eye of Divine Providence inscribed in a triangle. On the pedestals, there are statues of Saint Anne, Saint Joachim, Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Joseph. The whole is crowned with a cross adored by two angels.

It is a single-nave church with rows of chapels. At the end of the nave, there is a straight closed presbytery covered with a barrel vault with lunettes, supported by ribbed vaults. Above the columns, there is a very wide entablature and a richly diversified cornice. Delicate Rococo-style stucco decoration is mainly present on the arches opening into the nave.

The sculptures on the facade and the pulpit, which is one of the most characteristic elements of the church's interior, in the shape of a ship's prow, equipped with a mast, sail, net, and anchor (known as a boat-shaped pulpit), are the work of Jan Jerzy Plersch. The painting of the Visitation in the main altar was painted by Tadeusz Konicz. The silver plaques on the ebony altar retable were made by Mateusz Wallbaum and Herman Potthof.

From 1825 to 1826, Fryderyk Chopin played the church organ while attending the Warsaw Lyceum. Sunday masses for the lyceum students took place here, and the composer was entrusted with the role of the school organist. In 1909, the old instrument was replaced with a new one, but the wooden music choir was preserved.

The church houses monuments to Tadeusz Czacki and Kazimierz Brodziński, as well as numerous epitaphs (including those of Bolesław Podczaszyński, Henryk Marconi, Julian Bartoszewicz, Jan Zieja, and Bronisław Bozowski). At the entrance, there is a monument-epitaph of Father Jan Twardowski in the form of a kneeling figure with his last poem engraved, written just before his death in the hospital on Banacha Street, along with a small ladybird.