The text describes above all the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary and the Tomb of Christ in the same church in Zwickau. In doing so, the history of this city, which in the 17th and 18th centuries was linked to Poland by a personal union, is recalled. Moreover, it is to Wit Stwosz that the design of the Christ Tomb in the Cathedral of the Virgin Mary in Ćwików is attributed. (Source: Tygodnik Illustrowany, Warsaw 1863, T:7, pp. 24-26., after: Digital Library of the University of Łódź).

A modernised reading of the text.

Church of the Virgin Mary in Ćwików (Zwickau) and the tomb of Christ in this church.

In today's Saxon country, once populated by Slavic Sorbs themselves, not far from the borders of the Czech kingdom, between Leipzig and Karlsbad, on the iron road, lies the town of Zwickau, once called Ćwików in Slavic dialect. Its most beautiful decoration is the church of the Virgin Mary, now Lutheran, founded by the countess Bertha, daughter of Wiprecht, a count from Groitsch, a prominent count in Czech history, and Judith, a Bohemian princess, as evidenced by the countess's privilege from 1118: super oppulo Zwickowe et ecclesia ejusdem oppidi (for the town of Æwikowo and its church). The family of counts from Grójec ruled in Æwikowo; in the same year 1118, countess Berta married count Sizzon of Kefernburg; she did not live with him long and married a second time to Daedon of Wettern; she was widowed in 1121, did not die herself until 1143, leaving a daughter Matilda, married to Rabodon, count of Abensberg.

Later, the town of Æwikowo came under the rule of margraves, then princes and the Elector of Saxony, and with every century the traces of the Slavic nationality of the inhabitants of this country became more and more obscure under German rule. In 1327, the use of the Slavonic language was already forbidden in the courts of Leipzig and Ævikov. However, some traces of the Slavonic language still remain today in the town's coat of arms and Slavic idolatrous worship (as we shall see below) in the church of the Virgin Mary, erected, according to legend, on the site of Swiatowid's shrine.

Until 1444, the three towers constituted the town's coat of arms; then three swans arrived, Schwane in German, which (according to the learned town historian Dr Herzog) arose from a misunderstanding of the near-sounding Slavic word holy (towers or town?).

For these swans, however, the city's earliest chronicler, Dr. Erasmus Stüler (born in Leipzig in 1455, and in Bononia, where he received his medical training and in Poland, whose description he left, under the name: Erasmus Stella known), taking advantage of the complete disappearance of the municipal archives in 1403, derived the genealogy of the town from Cygneus, the son or grandson of Hercules, and called it Cygnæa, or Cygnavia, a name which also passed into later chronicles. The name was supposed to be based on an inscription of Swanhilda found by chance in the tomb field, obviously in forged diplomatic documents of the emperors Conrad II in 1030, Henry III in 1042 and Henry IV in 1074, the falsity of which has been sufficiently proven by Dr Herzog, who has brought us here several times. Thus, from the word sacred, the German word Schwane, in Latin cygui, was twisted, and from these the exuberant fantasy of the 15th century chronicler created Cygneus, a descendant of Hercules, and the name of the city Cygnea or Cygnavia. Meanwhile, according to all likeliness (as Kreisig claims), the name Ćwików comes from wiki, which means market in Slavic.

We mentioned above the fire of 1403. Several earlier fires, in 1328 and 1383, almost completely destroyed the Church of the Virgin Mary, built by Countess Bertha at the beginning of the 12th century, so that the western part only by the tower still retains some traces of the original construction. The rebuilt church suffered again in the fire of 1403, at which time it was decided to rebuild a partly larger and more impressive church. In July 1453, the foundations of the choir were laid, as evidenced by the inscription above the door on the south side, which still remains: Anno domini MCCCCLIII diebus mensis Julii fundumentum hujus chori inclioatum fuit. The construction was completed in 1470.

In the same year, a silver mine was discovered in Schneeberg, and its owner, Martin Romer, enriched by this discovery, used part of his treasures for the chapel of his name and for the precious ornaments of St Mary's Church. Among the jewels he donated to the church, the most expensive was a sapphire reliquary, made of gold and containing four fragments of the Holy Cross, with a Serbian inscription attesting to its origin from St Helen, the Empress, which Romer bought for a considerable sum in Salzburg in 1479 and presented to St Mary's Church. It remained there, despite the church's conversion to Lutheranism, until 1631, when Wallenstein, having captured the town of Æwikowo during the 30-year war, threatened to burn it if Romer's relic was not sent through his hands to Emperor Ferdinand as a voluntary offering. It is not known whether it reached the Emperor's hands and whether the Viennese treasury still retains it.

Prior to the acquisition of the relic, in 1470, the Romer family had been granted nobility and a coat of arms by Emperor Frederick III: two Roman swords on a cross, which was placed in many places inside the church, as well as in the adjacent buildings and on the square, by the newly-ennobled but formerly well-served burghers of the town. Martin Romer was an elder in the municipal office from 1475 to 1483, the year in which he died. He also left the church a splendid legacy, namely a large cupboard altar commissioned for 1500 florins from the famous painter Michal Wohlgemuth, master of Albrecht Dürer, and in which Adam Krafft is said to have made the wood carvings. Martin's brothers Nikolai (Niclas) and Jan (Hans) are buried with him in the Romerov chapel.

This is why we have dwelt a little longer on the Romer family (whose namesakes are also to be found in Courland and Lithuania), because they donated the tomb of Christ to the church of the Virgin Mary, which was supposedly made by our Wit Stwosz, and because of which we have given this description of the town of Æwik闚, or rather the church of the Virgin Mary.

But coming back to this church, half-finished in 1470, we cannot omit a medieval folk legend which connected the discovery of a silver mine with the construction of the church.

In a poor hut, not far from the Lark Mill (Lerchenmühle), there lived a man who owned three donkeys, and hence was called a donkey. He was poor, but merciful, because he was happy to share his own piece of bread with everyone. The donkeys usually grazed in the meadow by the mill, which is still called Donkey Meadow. One night, in the midst of a terrible storm, an elderly woman collapsing under the weariness found shelter and hospitality in a poor donkey farmer's hut. It was N. Miss. On her way out, she thanked the old man for his hospitality with the promise of considerable earthly treasures. The donkey driver, having driven his donkeys to the meadow, returned to the cottage as quickly as he could until he found the promised treasures there; however, he searched in vain in every corner until evening. Before nightfall, the docile donkeys returned with their bloody mouths. Much puzzled and dismayed, the donkey-keeper turned on his torch and hurried to the meadow to investigate the cause of his animals' disability; but having barely stepped into the meadow, he cut his own leg on something sharp, looked closer, and there, from beneath the grass, there shone everywhere like silver spikes. "Holy Virgin!" he shouted, "well, the treasure has been found!" and he immediately runs to the hut and returns with his chariot, driving all three donkeys covered with empty sacks in front of him. He goes on working until dawn, and digs up so many silver spikes that he returns to the cottage with full sacks on his donkeys. There, having taken his treasures off the donkeys, he looks at them curiously and folds his hands in prayer: "Thank you, Holy Virgin," he exclaims, "I will make good use of them. And he did, and to this day you can still see his emblem - a donkey's whip - in the church of the Virgin Mary in Æwików.

Whatever the case, part of the new church was rebuilt between 1433 and 1470 and decorated with chapels and altars by Martin Romer, owner of the newly discovered silver mine in Schneeberg.
In 1506, stone masonry of the outer walls was started to spread the church nave, as evidenced by the interior inscription on a copper plaque on the outer north wall next to the choir. On the parapet next to this plaque, a bizarre figure has been carved from stone, similar to the other figure that forms the closure of the vault in the oldest part of the church, under the tower. They are three faces with four eyes and a beard sagging around them, covered by a single hat - thus combining the features of Swiatowid and Triglav, the main idols of Slavic theogony.
The construction of the new, expanded church was not completed until 1536, in the form we still see today.

With the commencement of this construction, the church was enriched, thanks to the generosity of the Romer family, with a new decoration - the Tomb of Christ, carved in wood (Figure A).
It is a sarcophagus, similar to the tomb of St Sebald in Nuremberg, measuring: 9 cubits high, 4½ long and 2 wide. It consists of three tiers; above the fourth rises a light turret, housing statues of the Blessed Virgin and Evangelists, measuring three quarters of a cubit, in pointed frames. The walls of the lower and upper tiers are decorated with rich arabesques of leaves and flowers. Inside the upper tier rests the body of Christ, also made of wood, but apparently later and less elaborate.
The middle tier is surrounded by the figures of twelve sleeping tomb guards, shown in various poses in semi-convex carving. The inscription on one of the larger sides, carved in Gothic letters, reads: Anno Domini MCCCCC und VII jur ist das Grab gemacht.
Beneath one of the gables of the upper tier, on a shield, is a mark that may refer to the head of the Romer family, Martin, who died in 1483.

In the four corners, between the lower and middle storeys, are four fantastic beasts holding shields - two have already fallen off, one is empty and the fourth has a mark and letters different from those on the upper shield (figure B).
Could this be the monogram of an unknown master? Old descriptions of the town of Æwików and the church of the Virgin Mary do not give his name. It was only in a description of the church printed several years ago, prepared by the local custodian, that the name of the master appeared for the first time... Wit Stwosz.
Indeed, the character of the figures of the sleeping guards is reminiscent of the weeping figures around the tomb of King Casimir Jagiellon. Some of them are particularly well rendered. The style of the architectural ornamentation and arabesques is reminiscent of the beautiful finial of the great Marian altar in Krakow.

But what do the emblems with the letters M. II. on the lower and M. R. on the upper shield mean?
Despite the conjectures cited, these letters do not seem to be related to the Romer family. Could it be that they stand for two disciples of one master - Wit Stwosz?
This question could be settled by comparison, and the most appropriate means would be to disseminate the image of this monument through the woodcuts of the Illustrated Weekly.

The tomb of Christ is placed in the upper chapel, reached by a beautiful double spiral staircase.
In 1833, this sculpture was restored (at the expense of one Romer) and covered with bitter varnish (Coloquintemvasser) for protection against pests.

Finally, it is worth mentioning, if only briefly, the Kranach paintings in the Church of the Virgin Mary and the gravestones of the 16th and 17th centuries, the most splendid of which is the statue of Charles von Bose from 1657, with a splendid relief in Carrara marble by Gabriel Brunelli of Bologna, depicting Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane.
At the same chapel of the Bose family, rolls are distributed every Sunday after the morning service to 26 poor people - from a fund left by Karl von Bose of 26 and 2/3 thalers per year.
This is a more modest but useful civic donation, in addition to the magnificent monuments funded by the Romers, among which is a sculpture attributed to the chisel of our own Wit Stwosz.