The church and its furnishings also have artistic values. 

History

The settlement in the vicinity of Bolesławów was recorded as early as in the 14th century and was connected with the activity of local iron ore mines and forges. The town was founded after Emperor Rudolf II issued a Mining Statute in 1578, in which it was planned to establish a free mining town in the valley of Biała Lądecka or Morawka. During the process of town foundation a parish church, mentioned in 1598, was built by the Protestants. Late Renaissance, with a one-span, three-sided closed presbytery with pointed arch windows, buttresses and a tower built over it. This church was taken over by Catholics in 1623. In 1672-1675 it was rebuilt in as straightforward manner as possible, preserving the chancel, the tower shaft and maybe fragments of the nave wall. New parts of the church and elements of the facade decoration are maintained in the early Baroque style. A new, larger nave was probably erected and covered with a wooden ceiling. The top floor of the tower is crowned with a cupola. Shaped like the upper storeys of the church towers in Stara Łomnica and Dlugopole Górne erected on the basis of solutions developed by North Italian builders. The church in Bolesławów was enlarged from the west in 1775. And then a wooden choir built into the nave, possibly combined with short galleries. In 1823 the ceiling of the nave was replaced by a late Baroque vault and a new music choir was built, supported by wooden pillars. Then in 1846 a tower clock was mounted on the tower façades. The poles under the gallery were replaced with the stone columns and a sandstone floor replaced a fieldstone floor. The tower and chancel vault were renovated in 1859. In the 19th century the porches were rebuilt, the roofing was replaced, initially shingles (ca. 1815), and from 1844 the slate. In 1906 a polychromy of the vaulting of the nave of the church (Wilhelm Reinsch), maintained in the spirit of early 20th-century painting, and a decorative polychromy of the presbytery vault were made. In the early The window in the chancel was rebuilt into bifora surround with a stone frame. Probably at that time stained glass windows were also made. In the first half of the the 20th century the church’s furnishings were in Gothic Revival style with Baroque elements. The church was renovated in the 1970’s and 1980’s, and as part of this work, the present wooden music choir was built, with or without a short galleries. In 1987 the interior and elements of the church’s furnishings were maintained. They were also rebaroquised.

Description

The church in Bolesławów is located on the southwestern side of the market square, east-oriented, made of stone and brick, plastered. It consists of a chancel partially built into the tower and a nave covered with a high, gabled roof with a jerkin head and a steeple. The tower above the chancel is three-storey, quadrilateral at the bottom, octagonal at the top, topped with a flattened, bulbous, single-sided cupola with helmet. The façades of the chancel, nave, towers and porches are pierced with various holes. Some façades, including the tower, are finished with crowning cornices. Partially separated, three-sided closed chancel, is supported with buttresses and covered with a cross vault (within the tower) and a slightly peaked conch vault, with lunettes. The narrow rood arch is also slightly pointed. Rectangular nave, wide, with a wooden music choir supported by four stone columns. Covered with a long-span barrel vault, with shallow lunettes. Above the music choir there is a barrel vault with lunettes in a more classical form. Late baroque plafonds in profiled frames on the vault. Two main plafonds depict the Blessing Christ and the Mary Coronation. In the remaining plafonds there are half-figures of the Doctors of the Church: St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome and St. Gregory III, the Pope. On the vault above the music choir an image of St. Cecilia. Above the plafonds there are bands with inscriptions. The church’s furnishings are composed of Baroque altarpieces: the main altarpiece of St. Joseph (1710) and St. John of Nepomuk (1728-1731, Michael Klahr the Elder), from the Baroque Revival side altarpiece with Immaculate (from the second half of a Baroque Revival pulpit (ca. 1987?) and a Gothic Revival pipe organ casing (1832?, ca. mid-19th century).

The church is open to visitors all year round; interior tours upon prior telephone appointment.

Compiled by Iwona Rybka-Ceglecka, The Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Wrocław, 18 November 2015.

Bibliography

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