Literacko-językowy obraz bydgoskich kościołów oraz ich kapłanów w Moście Królowej Jadwigi

Most Królowej Jadwigi, the three-volume novel by Bydgoszcz novelist Jerzy Sulima-Kaminski, is one of the few literary records of the history of the city on the Brda river. The narrator of the novel lists almost all the churches existed in Bydgoszcz before the Second World War. The majority are Catholic and Protestant churches, and next to them there is a synagogue, pulled down by the Nazis, and one a tiny orthodox church (also non-existent today). The author of the novel focuses on the towers of the churches. A special place in the literary and linguistic picture of the churches in Bydgoszcz is Jesuit church in the Old Market (destroyed by the Nazis). Sulima-Kaminski uses the noun kościół and names a narrower meaning, as zbór, kircha, bóżnica, synagoga and cerkiewka. In the picture of Bydgoszcz churches people connected with some of these temples play a major role: the priest Rolski, the canon Stepczyński, the priest Godek, Father Kaluschke, the pop Smoktunowicz. But the organist Jankowski (who became a legend of the church of Sacred Heart of Jesus at the Piastowski Place) is the most colorful character. The linguistic and literary picture of churches in Bydgoszcz is characterized by strong positive emotions. The churches are the components of the identity of the author’s hometown and a small part of his childhood homeland.