History

The first mentions of the church in Dziesław (known as Deichslau until 1945) date back to 1376. In 1399, references appear to a local parish priest known as Conradus. From 1568 until World War II, the church remained in the hands of the local Evangelical community. In 1655, the a devastating fire raged across the village, with both the parish house and the school being lost to the blaze. The stone walls of the church, however, have survived the conflagration, allowing the temple to be rebuilt. George von Langenau, the erstwhile owner of the Dziesław manor, provided the funding necessary to built a makeshift roof, clad with wood shingles. In 1695, a wooden tower was erected, with a sacristy being added in 1755. It is known that in 1835 the church was in a state of ruin. In 1865, it was rebuilt in the Gothic Revival style by the erstwhile owner of the manor and the benefactor of the church – Emil Metscher, a local councillor. It is to him that the community also owes the reconstruction of the parish house in 1858, followed by the parish school in 1862.  

Description

The church complex in Dziesław is located in the western part of the village, on the northern side of the road heading for Przychowa, bordering with the nearby palace complex to the east. 

The design of the church exhibits mostly Gothic Revival forms. The church is a masonry structure oriented towards the east, its main body covered with a gable roof; it features a distinct chancel with a semi-decagonal end section, its walls reinforced with sturdy buttresses, as well as a massive, four-storey tower in the western, built on a quadrangular floor plan and featuring an octagonal upper shaft crowned with a slender spire. The nave is adjoined by the sacristy and the porch to the south. Both the main entrance in the western façade of the tower and the windows of the nave and the chancel are topped with pointed arches. 

The site is open to visitors. More information is available on the website of the Legnica diocese – http://www.diecezja.legnica.pl

Complied by Bogna Oszczanowska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Wrocław, 1 September 2015.

Bibliography

• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk (Art Monuments in Poland. Silesia), Warsaw 2006, p. 250.
• Gawel H., Hultsch G., Kirchen und Gemeinden im Oderland um Steinau, Düsseldorf 1972, pp. 15-17.