History

Built in years 1861-1877, it was erected to replace an older, wooden church which preceded it, dating back to the 1760s and funded by a man named Bielicki.

Description

The church is located in the central part of the village of Błenna. It was designed in the Neoclassical style, with strong Baroque Revival influences. The church is oriented towards the east; it was designed as a single-nave building with a transept, erected on a cruciform plan. The chancel of the church ends with an apse, while a tall tower rises ahead of the western façade. A pair of quadrangular chapels occupies the corner spaces between the chancel and the transept wings. A steeple rises above the crossing of the nave and transept. The entire structure is covered with a gable roof, while the tower features a pyramid roof surmounted by a spire. The church is a brick building, its walls covered with plaster; the roofs are clad with sheet metal. The façades of the church feature a tall wall base made of stone; parts of the wall base feature a plaster finish, while other sections are left bare, exposing the stone structure beneath. Above the wall base, the façades are partitioned with rather restrained buttresses, projecting only slightly ahead of the surface of the walls, and crowned with a profiled cornice. The front façade features a central tower, designed as a three-storey structure. The individual storeys of the tower are accentuated with cornices. The ground-floor section of the façade follows a three-axial layout, partitioned by pilasters and crowned with a simple roof parapet. The entrance door, positioned on the middle axis, is topped with a semi-circular arch, corresponding to the design of the single windows which flank the entrance. The wall of the main body of the church above the ground-floor level is visibly receded vis-à-vis the tower; each of the two sections of the wall is topped with a volute-shaped coping, flowing downwards from the side of the tower towards a conical finial at the edge. The receded wall of the main body is pierced by a pair of windows topped with semi-circular arches, flanking the tower, while the walls of the tower itself are adorned by a trio of oculi - a glazed one up front and a pair of blind oculi on the sides. All of the window openings at this level are framed with profiled surrounds. The next storey of the tower features a pair of arched windows occupying niche, likewise topped with a semi-circular arch. The uppermost storey of the tower features a single window flanked by a pair of blind windows, forming a triforium surmounted by a tympanum; this design motif is repeated on all four sides of the tower. The side façades of the church feature a rhythmic arrangement of tall windows, topped with semi-circular arches, with a single oculus positioned in the centre of each of the transept walls. All of the windows feature profiled surrounds at the height of the arch. Inside, the single, open nave opens towards the chancel apse and the transept arms through low, semi-circular arches. The vestibule is connected to the nave by an aperture topped with a segmental arch, supported by a pair of engaged columns.

Property of the parish. The building can be viewed from the outside.

compiled by Sara Szerszunowicz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Toruń, 30-10-2014.