The Gothic cathedral was shaped in the course of construction work lasting for almost 200 years until the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. Since the Middle Ages it has been the most important of all churches in Toruń, the pivotal point of religious life in the town. In the mid-16th century the church was taken over by the Lutherans and later on, for nearly 20 years, it was shared by the Catholics and Protestants. From the late 16th until the second half of the 18th century it belonged to the Jesuits. In 1992 it became the cathedral of the diocese of Toruń established by Pope John Paul II.