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St. Sophia’s court chapel complex - Zabytek.pl

St. Sophia’s court chapel complex


church 1828 - 1830 Bliżyn

Address
Bliżyn

Location
woj. świętokrzyskie, pow. skarżyski, gm. Bliżyn

St.Sophia’s church in Bliżyn is one of the most valuable nineteenth-century wooden sacred buildings in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship.

In the interior and in the adjacent cemetery there is a unique collection of iron metal craftwork from the 2nd half of the 19th century (balustrades, elements of the fence, gravestones and stairs) made in the local steelworks.

History

The wooden chapel of St. Sophia in Bliżyn was recorded in the sources for the first time during the visit of the Skrzynecki deanery in 1759. The record mentioned that it was freshly renovated, which suggests a much earlier origin. In 1815 the building was destroyed by fire. In the years 1828-1830, count Jacek Potkański erected the current church in its place. The founder decided to build the church because he wanted to temporarily place a parish in it, as he did not have the means to complete the nearby brick church of St. Louis, founded in 1817 by his mother, Ludwika Potkańska. The authorities of the Sandomierz diocese and the governorate did not agree to such a proposal, which is why in the following decades, despite further efforts, it served only as a court chapel. In the 1850s, the family of the owners of Bliżyn started to be buried in the adjacent area, which is why the cemetery was fenced with a wall. On the initiative of Fr Jan Grzybowski, the Bliżyn chaplain, the church was extended in 1866-1869 with the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary and its furnishings were restored. Before 1887 it was covered with weatherboards. In 1888, the Bliżyn filial parish was temporarily placed in it. It lost this status in 1900 after the consecration of the nearby brick church of St. Louis, erected in 1896-1900. In 1921, the cemetery wall was repaired. The next renovation of the church was carried out only at the turn of 1947/1948, thanks to the efforts of Prime Minister Edward Osóbka-Morawski who came from Bliżyn. In 1955, religion lessons were conducted in the church, and a furnace, new benches and electric lights were installed. The church was thoroughly renovated once again in 1989-90. In 2005-2006 the surrounding area of the former church cemetery was cleaned.

Description

St. Sophia’s filial church complex is located in the centre of the village, between T. Kosciuszko, VI Wieków Bliżyna and 1 Maja Streets. It consists of a centrally located wooden church, a church cemetery and a stone fence.

The oriented one-nave temple was built of larch wood, as a log structure on a stone foundation. The body of the building is based on a plan of an elongated octagon with a rectangular porch to the west and three annexes to the east: on the axis of the chancel - the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary is placed diagonally from the south and the sacristy from the north. The roof over the body is tented, eight-faced with a rafter-beam structure, topped with a steeple with a bulbous cupola; the remaining roofs are gable and triple-sloped, all covered with shingles. The facades of the church are vertically boarded and topped with a prominent under eaves cornice. At the northern façade of the porch a cast-iron spiral staircase from the 2nd half of the 19th century was added (made by the Bliżyn Steelworks), leading to the music choir. The interior of the church was vertically boarded and covered with ceilings. In the western part of the nave there is a music choir supported by two wooden pillars. The rood arch is flattened and the entrance to the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary has a pointed-arch design. Among the modest furnishings of the church, the following items are noteworthy: e.g. the main altar from the 2nd quarter of the 19th century with a painting of the Blessed Virgin Mary with Child from the 19th century (?), a classicising side altar from the 1860s with an older painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa in a gilt dress, a 19th century crucifix, openwork cast-iron bars separating the chancel and the Our Lady of Częstochowa Chapel from the 2nd half of the 19th century (made by the Bliżyn Steelworks), an epitaph plaque of Maria nee Wielogłowska Grzegorzewska (died in 1871, made by the Bliżyn Steelworks), as well as paintings on the walls of the Blessed Virgin Mary (from 1560, renovated 1866-69) and the Blessed Virgin Mary with Child from the late 18th century (?).

The former church cemetery is based on a square-shaped plan. It is fenced with a stone wall from the 2nd half of the 19th century divided into several dozens of spans, originally covered with cast-iron shed roofs (currently single pieces have been preserved). In the north-western part of the fence there are two entrances with corner pillars crowned with iron, pyramid-shaped canopies with a ball and a cross.

In the cemetery, surrounding the church, there are very damaged cast-iron tombstones of the owners of Bliżyn with openwork fences, made in the local foundry: of Aleksandra Wielogłoska (d. 1848), Aniela née Potkańska Wielogłoska (d. 1854), Aleksander Wielogłowski (d. 1879), Juliusz Wielogłowski (d. 1875), Konstanty Wielogłoski (d. 1878), and Jan (d. 1879) and Natalia née Wielogłowska Bzowska (d. 1879).

The monument is open to visitors. It may be visited after prior arrangement with the parish priest of the St. Louis’ church in Bliżyn.

Łukasz Piotr Młynarski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kielce, 27.04.2017

Bibliography

  • Adamczyk A., Kościoły drewniane w województwie kieleckim, Kielce 1998.
  • Barański S., Wybrane materiały do dziejów Bliżyna, [in:] Notatnik Bliżyński, vol. I, ed. S. Barański, Bliżyn 1986, pp. 29-43.
  • Barański S., Wybrane materiały do dziejów Bliżyna, [in:] Notatnik Bliżyński, vol. III, ed. S. Barański, Bliżyn 1988, pp. 67-72.
  • Bastrzykowski A., Zabytki kościelne budownictwa drewnianego w diecezji sandomierskiej, Krakow, 1930.
  • Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, vol. III: Województwo kieleckie, ed. J. Z. Łoziński, B. Wolff, vol. 4: Powiat kielecki, prepared by T. Przypkowski et al., Warszawa 1957.
  • Medyński M., Bliżyn i okolice w okresie niewoli narodowej, [in:] Dzieje Bliżyna, ed. K. Zemeła, P. Kardyś, Bliżyn 2010, pp. 125-227.
  • Mirowski, Drewniane kościoły i dzwonnice Ziemi Świętokrzyskiej, Kielce 2002.
  • Nowak J. T., Dzieje Bliżyna i okolic w latach 1945-1990, [in:] Dzieje Bliżyna, ed. K. Zemeła, P. Kardyś, Bliżyn 2010, pp. 229- 417.
  • Sadza W., Wykaz proboszczów parafii rzymsko-katolickiej w Biżynie w latach 1888-1987, [in:] Notatnik Bliżyński, vol. I, ed. S. Barański, Bliżyn 1986, pp. 60-62.
  • Skowron K., Opis artystycznych odlewów żeliwnych znajdujących się na zewnątrz i wewnątrz kościółka p.w. św. Zofii w Bliżynie, Bliżyn 2007.
  • Wiśniewski J., Dekanat konecki, Radom 1913.
  • Zemeła K., Dzieje Bliżyna i okolic w XVI-XVIII w., [in:] Dzieje Bliżyna, ed. K. Zemeła, P. Kardyś, Bliżyn 2010, pp. 57-123.

     

Category: church

Protection: Register of monuments

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_26_ZE.24604