A monastery building adjacent to the church erected on a hoof plan and a Baroque cemetery chapel in the corner of the area together form a self-contained whole. The church, chapel and monastery were founded by Jan Klemens Branicki for Dominicans brought to Choroszcz already in mid-17th century.

History

The first monastery for 12 Dominicans was founded in 1654 by Mikołaj Stefan Pac, a Vilnius castellan and a later bishop of Vilnius, at a church erected by his parents. A wooden church was destroyed by fire in 1683. Another church and monastery buildings burned down in 1704. The new period in the history of the town and the Dominican convent was marked by the purchase of Choroszcz estate by the Branickis family. Jan Klemens Branicki founded a brick church, designed by Jan Henryk Klemm, erected in the years 1753-1758 and consecrated in 1770 by bishop Ludwik Ignacy de Rancour. The Rococo decor was made by Antoni Herliczka, Branicki’s court painter. In 1832, the monastery was disbanded, friars were relocated to Różanystok and the church was taken over by diocesan priests. In 1915, the church’s tower was destroyed. During the renovation in 1918, two side naves were added to the single-nave corpus of the church; at first, in place of the southern nave, a cloister opening to the monastery courtyard was found. In 1938, a fire destroyed the interior, altars and pulpit, while during World War II, the tower and roof were damaged. The church was rebuilt in the years 1946-1948 and reconstructed between 1966 and 1975. Repairs carried out after 2000 aimed at reconstructing the church’s decor.

Description

The church and the monastery takes up the eastern frontage of the market. The body of the building has a Late Baroque character. The building is oriented towards the east, made of brick and plastered. Initially a single-nave, currently of a basilica arrangement, with a separated presbytery closed with a straight arch and a tower with cut corners, protruding from the facade face in the west. One-storey sacristies are found on both sides of the presbytery. A two-storey tower on a rectangular floor plan with cut corners, fragmented by pilasters and cornices, with a triangular pediment at the front. The bell openings are rectangular, with semicircular arches. The upper storey crowned with semi-circular cornices, covered with a spire with circular dormers crowned with an iron crucifix. The main nave covered with a gable roof; a slightly lower presbytery covered with a multi-hipped roof; sacristies and side naves covered with pent roofs. The main corpus with a presbytery accentuated by a slope, with rounded corners. Façades fragmented by pilasters, crowned with a pronounced, profiled cornice. The entrance opening semi-circularly closed; rectangular window openings crowned with a segmental arch; oval windows of naves. The southern nave’s façade transforms into an umbrella wall linked with the monastery building. The three-nave interior covered with a barrel vault with lunettes. The main nave rounded on the corners, opening towards the side naves with three pairs of semi-circularly closed archways. A choir gallery on the western side rests on three arcades.

Accessible structure.

compiled by Joanna Kotyńska-Stetkiewicz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Bialystok, 08-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Choroszcz. Kościół i klasztor podominikański. Dokumentacja historyczna [Choroszcz. Dominican Church and Monastery. Historical and Architectural Study], complied by Piłaszewicz Z., Białystok 1970, typescript PPKZ, collection of the Regional Monument Protection Office in Białystok.
• Kasabuła T., Zarys dziejów parafii rzymskokatolickiej w Choroszczy [History of the Roman-Catholic Parish in Choroszcz], [in:] Czas na Podlaskie - Choroszcz [Time for Podlaskie Voivodeship - Choroszcz]. Speeches from the historical session titled “494 Anniversary of the Podlaskie Voivodeship,” Choroszcz 2007, p. 97-107.