History

In Chociszewo, a village dating back to the Middle Ages, there was a parish about which the oldest mention comes from 1420. At that time, parish priest Piotr Mangold and Mikołaj Kloc (or Kloczek), who were the lessee of the rectory, were mentioned. The present church was probably built in the mid-14th century as a single-nave building with a separate, rectangular chancel. In the second half of the 15th century, a square tower was built on the west. At the turn of the 16th and the 17th century, the church was used by Protestants. Catholics reclaimed it in 1613. In the 16th and 18th century, the building was renovated, which partially distorted its original appearance. Approx. in 1930, a porch was built next to the church.

Description

Parish church of St St John the Baptist in Chociszewo is made mainly of stone, with some brick sections. The body, reinforced with buttresses, is covered with a gable roof with eyebrow windows. On the northern side of the chancel, there is a sacristy. Windows of the nave, which is plastered, are mostly with semicircular arches. The tower is not plastered. It is topped with a high spired tented roof. Façades of the tower are enlivened by narrow niches with semicircular arches. On the ground floor of the tower, there is an entrance opening with a similar top section. The tower hides a surviving bell dating back to the 15th century. The church’s interior is covered with a false barrel vault. Baroque fittings have survived until today: a main altar with the painting The Baptism of Christ and two side altars with paintings, one of which depicts the Adoration of the Shepherds and St Bernard of Clairvaux. The fittings also include a baptismal font, a pulpit, and a painting in the chancel, Beheading of St John the Baptist.

It should be noted that next to the church, there is a tomb chapel with a crypt where former lessees of the village are buried. It is a stone and brick building erected on a square floor plan in the first half of the 19th century. The late-Classicist chapel is covered with a tented roof topped with a stone vase.

The building is accessible all year round.

compiled by Krzysztof Garbacz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Zielona Góra, 18-03-2015.

Bibliography

• Garbacz K., Przewodnik po zabytkach województwa lubuskiego, t. 3: Powiaty: gorzowski - słubicki - sulęciński - międzyrzecki - strzelecko-drezdenecki, Zielona Góra 2013, s. 256-257, fot. 125.
• Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, s. 61.