It has been inscribed to the register of monuments as an example of brick sacred architecture in the Gothic - Renaissance style, erected by members of the workshop of John Baptist of Venice.

History

The feature was erected in the first half of the 16th century. The construction of the church began in 1542 owing to efforts of Bishop Samuel Maciejowski. It was completed around 1560 upon initiative of Bishop Andrzej Noskowski. Around 1620, by efforts of the parish priest Jakub Odrzywołek Kapusta, a northern chapel was added. In the 18th century the church was reconstructed. In the 19th century a porch from the west and a chapel from the south were added. The church was damaged during World War II, reconstructed around 1945 and in the years 1969-1971. During the reconstruction in the early 1970s a wall painting, dating back to the construction period and subsequently walled up, was unveiled.

Description

St Andrew Parish Church in Brok is located in middle of the market square and is surrounded by an oval church cemetery. It was built in the Gothic - Renaissance style and is oriented. It is built of brick and covered with a gable roof topped with sheet metal. The church was set on a rectangular floor plan with chapels in the eastern part and a porch in the western part as well as a narrower chancel terminating in an apse. The southern wall of the chancel is adjoined by a rectangular sacristy. The building’s corpus and a slightly lower chancel are covered with gable roofs. The lower apse is covered with a cupola ceiling. The northern chapel and a sacristy are covered with a common shed roof. The southern sacristy and the porch are covered with gable roofs. The roof structure is made of wood. The nave and the chancel have barrel vaults; the apse is vaulted with a conch. The southern chapel and the sacristy have groin vaults, while the northern chapel has a barrel vault with lunettes. The building’s walls are accentuated on the corners and partitioned by tall, three-sloped buttresses, surmounted with a recessed plastered strip and crowned with a pronounced cornice resting on brick corbels. The window openings are rectangular, with semicircular arches, with double glyphs in a profiled surround and cornice sections under the windows. The front façade is preceded by a porch, accentuated by buttress on the corners and with a stepped portal terminating semi-circularly. The porch roof obscures the window to the half of its height in the central field of the facade. The front façade and presbytery gable is stepped, with a contour marked by sections of a circle, multi-axis, partitioned by small pilasters in four zones between which there are shallow niches with semicircular arches formed by profiles cornices. An oculus is found in the lower part of the gable. The interior of the nave and the presbytery is partitioned by blind arcades resting on pillars adjoining the walls. Around the nave and the chancel there are strips of arcaded niches with semicircular arches formed by profiled surrounds. The niches have hemispherical vaults, alternately filled with oblique walls with rectangular niches. Barrel vaults embellished with a geometric network of circular coffers surmount the nave and the chancel. The chancel’s apse has a conch vault. The interior’s decor includes Baroque altars. A brick architectural altar dates back to the 1st half of the 18th century and includes sculptures of St. John of Nepomuk and John Cantius and a painting of Crucified Christ from the 18th century in the main field. The side altar from the first half of the 18th century, shaped as a Joshua Tree with a painting of Holy Mother with a Child from the first half of the 18th century. The second side altar from the third quarter of the 19th century, with a painting of St Anna the Teacher (created by I. Stelmaski). A baptismal font from 1682 with a copper bowl and two granite baptismal fonts from the 16th century.

The feature is accesible to visitors.

Compiled by Katarzyna Kosior, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw, 16-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Tom X Województwo Warszawskie, zeszyt 12 powiat ostrowsko-mazowiecki, Instytut Sztuki PAN, Warszawa 1974 r.
• Karta ewidencyjna zabytku architektury i budownictwa tzw Karta Biała, P. Hapka, 12 czerwca 1984 r.