History

The parish in Srock was established at the beginning of the 15th century. The first, wooden temple was dedicated to St. Anne. It was built around 1410.

In 1760, Stanisław Małachowski (the famous Marshal of the Four-Year Sejm), heir of the Srock estate and the neighbouring estates, began building a more impressive brick building under the double invocation of St. Benedict the Abbot and St. Anne. The construction was completed in 1766. The church was erected on a rectangular plan, with two small side chapels situated symmetrically at the longer sides of the rectangle. The chapels formed the arms of the fairly narrow transept.

From the north, in the chancel section, behind the wall with the main altar, there was a treasury and a sacristy, and in the corners of the southern part: a porch and stairs leading to the organ and choir gallery. The roof was covered with wood shingles. There was a steeple at the front.

In the 1880s, it was decided that the temple was too small to accommodate its growing congregation. Due to the efforts of the then parish priest, a thorough alteration (or actually construction of a new building) was undertaken in 1898 according to a design created by a well-known architect K. Wojciechowski. The works were completed in 1913 and the present day church was officially consecrated in the same year.

Description

The church is situated in the centre of Srock, near the road from Łódź to Piotrków. The church area adjoins the market square from the north. It is surrounded by an openwork fence, consisting of sections set on a foundation and made from brick poles and iron balustrades. In the area of ​​the church cemetery (from the east), there is the Baroque chapel of St. Nicolas. The chancel of the church faces north.

Initially Baroque in style, the church draws on the traditions of both Baroque and the Italian Renaissance.

The church was built on the floor plan of a rectangle, adjoined by two semicircles of the apses marking the transept, as well as by the apse terminating the chancel. On the southern side, there is a porch.

The building has the form of a pseudo-basilica, the nave (equal in height to the transept and chancel) is higher than the aisles, but has no window openings. The aisles are covered with shed roofs. Over other parts, there are gable roofs. The two three-storey towers in the southern part are crowned with domed cupolas with lanterns.

The brick walls are plastered on both sides. The church is covered with brick groin vaults, with half-domes in the apses. The church has a wooden roof truss with a double suspension structure. The roofs were covered with ceramic roof tiles.

The southern elevation serves as the façade. Its central part is highlighted by a decorative gable. The door opening is topped with a semi-circular arch. In its tympanum, there is a cartouche with the inscription D.O.M. On its sides, there are the dates: 1766 and 1909 and the initials XW and KK. The portal was placed in a flat avant-corps topped with a triangular pediment. The side parts of the façade form the lower storeys of the towers. On the ground floor, there are entrance openings. In the upper storeys, there are windows. The vertical divisions of the façade are emphasized by the use of numerous pilasters (some with delicate rusticated plasterwork). Horizontal divisions are emphasized by profiled cornices, which divide particular storeys, and by the plinth which runs around the brickwork. The same ornamentation is used on all elevations. The design of the eastern and western elevations is more modest. The most distinctive decorative element there are the tops placed on the walls of the transept. They are adjoined by the apses with three semicircular openings in rectangular frames. The windows in the aisles are topped with a segmental arch. The window openings in the apse and in the walls of the northern elevation of the chancel were designed in a similar way.

The church entrance leads to a spacious porch. The naves have three narrow bays. The chancel is one-bay wide and so is the transept. The walls of the naves and of the vaults are partly polychromed.

In the church porch, there is a stone baptismal font from the 15th and 16th centuries. Most of the fixtures and fittings (altars, pulpit) date to the time of the remodelling of the church, but several items of older craftwork have been preserved too, for example 18th-century confessionals and a 17th-century painting of Virgin of Mary of Gidle.

The church is open to the public all year round. The interior can be toured before or after church services or upon prior arrangement with the parish priest.

Compiled by Anna Michalska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 30 June 2017

Bibliography

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• Archiwum Archidiecezjalne w Łodzi, Diecezja Łódzka, Terytorium, Organizacja, Duchowieństwo, Łódź 1996
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