Roman Catholic parish church NMP on the Sand in Wroclaw

The Church of Our Lady on the Sand sits on an island in the Odra River, easily spotted by its massive brick silhouette and the two distinctively different towers that top its western facade. Founded in the twelfth century by Piotr Włostowic, a powerful nobleman who sought penance for his political sins, the structure rose on land once covered by sandbars. Its thick, defensive walls survived the siege of nineteen forty-five even as fire consumed its wooden roof and scorched the stone vaulting inside.