History

The first wooden church in Łanięta was built in the village in 1416 as a filial church of the parish of Białotarsk. An independent parish in Łanięta, belonging to the deanery of blacksmiths, was established in 1469, thanks to the efforts of Mikołaj, the Voivode of Kutno.

In 1469, the Voivode and his wife Barbara commissioned the construction of another wooden church in Łanięta, under the invocation of St. Nicholas and St. Barbara. The construction of a new temple was undertaken in the 17th century, because the wooden church was in a bad condition. It was erected in 1643, with funds donated by Katarzyna Nieborowska (?) (the wife of Marcin Sochaczewski, a deputy to the Seym in 1643). The church was small and followed a square floor plan.

In 1866, the church was enlarged to include a chancel, a porch, a sacristy and a gallery for the benefactors of the church. Father canon Franciszek Marmo received financial support from the heir of the Łanięta estate, Rudolf Skarżyński.

A parish chronicle has survived which provides detailed information about successive stages of the construction:

(...) in 1867, family graves were placed under the church for the family of the founder, with marble stairs leading from the sacristy of the brotherhood. In the following year, i.e. in 1868, a great altar was built in the magnificent Corinthian style, made of wood, adorned with a beautiful sculpture (...). A new side altar was built, the second one was only reworked. A new, sumptuously ornamented pulpit was installed, decorated with an exquisite sculpture. Marble predellas were provided for the altars and the chancel and six marble stoups were placed at the church door. A new gallery was set up, separating the chancel from the nave of the church. There is also a new, gilded sculpture of Zacchaeuses.

A year later, Rudolf Skarżyński donated funds for the renovation of the organ by Leopold Blumberg - an organ builder from Warsaw. A painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa was purchased from Mr. Luks - a painter from Częstochowa. The painting was placed in the main altar. In 1879, Rudolf Skarżyński provided funds for the construction of a new bell tower.

The remodelled church was consecrated in 1880 by the bishop of Kujawy and Kalisz, Wincenty Chościak Popiel.

In 1910, the interior of the church was embellished with a polychrome painted by Leon Zdziarski. Leon studied drawing in the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. He was a disciple of Wojciech Gerson. The Academy taught him to produce oil paintings, frescoes, drawings, watercolours and lithographs. Zdziarski mostly painted religious, allegorical and historical compositions. In 30 years, he produced frescoes for 77 churches. Most of those frescoes covered the entire interiors of religious buildings.

On 24 September 1918, the parish was visited by the apostolic delegate Achille Ratti - later Pope Pius XI. On the wall of the church, there is a bas-relief commemorating that event.

Description

The church is situated in the central part of the village of Łanięta, next to the old road from Gostyń to Krośniewice. It stands in the middle of the church cemetery, surrounded by a contemporary fence. In the south-west part of the area, there is a bell tower.

The temple represents the Baroque style.

The church follows the floor plan of the Latin cross, with a semi-circular apse terminating the chancel. The eastern side of the transept is adjoined by square annexes - a sacristy from the north and another sacristy with a gallery for the benefactors of the church from the south. To the west of the transept arms, there is a similar layout, with a chapel from the north and a hallway from the south. The western wall of the nave is adjoined by the entrance porch, erected on a square plan too.

The nave and the arms of the transept are covered with separate gable roofs. The sacristy has a three-hipped roof. The other structures have gable roofs.

The building is made of brick, plastered, cellared. The foundations are made from bricks and field stones. In the cellars, there are brick, cross-barrel vaults. The internal walls are made of brick and are plastered. On the first floor of the choir gallery and of the sacristy, there are also wooden, painted walls. The nave is covered with a barrel vault with lunettes. The apsis of the chancel is covered with a half-dome. At the intersection of the nave and transept, there is a cupola. The ceilings of the interior gallery (triforium), over the porch and the choir gallery, are wooden, filled with unfired clay bricks and covered with planks.

The stairs in the sacristy and the choir gallery are wooden, with an identical solid, frame-panelled balustrade.

The roof structure is wooden, assembled using rafters and collar-beams. The brick dome is set on pendentives. The cupolas and the ridge turret have a wooden structure. The roof is clad with galvanized sheet metal. The church has a newly laid marble floor. On the first storey of the benefactors’ gallery, there is a plank floor.

In the ancillary rooms, there are preserved wooden, jambed, two-wing windows. Some of the windows have a semicircular transom light. Inside the nave, the windows of the interior gallery (triforium) are three-wing, single, with each wing divided into multiple sections. In the outer walls of the nave and the chancel, there are stained glass windows. The wooden doors are panelled and two-wing.

The western elevation of the church is preceded by a porch wall set on a low plinth, covered with smooth plasterwork. The corners are flanked by pilasters. On the axis, there is an entrance gate. It is rectangular and topped with a full arch. It is fitted with a double, frame-panelled door. On each of the wings, the panels are decorated with carved cabochons in frames with floral decorations. The slamming strip has the form of a half-column topped with a capital. The transom light is decorated with wooden panels arranged into a fan-shaped pattern.

The entrance door is framed by pilasters supporting the cornice, with a smooth frieze and a tympanum. Above, there is a cornice and a smooth frieze with two low rectangular openings. The upper part of the wall is topped with a crowning cornice. There is an attic above it. Over the corners, there are obelisks on low pedestals. The obelisks have the form of pyramids with truncated tops. In the finial, on the axis, there is an aedicula with a niche topped with a full arch with a figure of Saint John (?). The walls of the attic, whose layout corresponds to that of the roof slopes, are topped with a volute. The western wall of the nave at the back is articulated in a similar way as the western wall of the church porch. In the central aedicula, there is a figure of the Risen Christ. The cornice of the nave wall is inscribed with the date 1866. Above the aedicula, a ridge turret was erected, covered with a gable roof surmounted by a metal cross.

The other elevations are smoothly plastered. They are articulated by rectangular window and door openings topped with a full arch, or a pointed arch as in the apse, or by rectangular openings topped with a segmental arch, like in the apse. The corners of all the walls are supported by pilasters. The elevations are highlighted by a cordon cornice. Above the cornice, there is a strip of a smooth frieze. Further above, there is a profiled under-eaves cornice, with a smooth frieze. The gables of the transept and the eastern wall of the nave are topped with gables, articulated in a similar way as on the front elevation. In each wall, there is a niche with a figure of a different saint. In the niche of the southern transept, there is a statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, in the eastern wall of the nave - a statue of St. Anthony.

Of particular interest is the two-storey building containing the sacristy on the ground floor and the benefactors’ gallery on the first floor. It is placed next to the southern elevation of the chancel. Its southern elevation is two-storey and three-axial. The axes are accented by the rectangular openings topped with a full arch. The arch of each of the openings is contoured by a profiled, stuccoed frame resting on imposts. Under each of the windows, there is a sill formed by a section of a cornice, based on two brackets. On the ground floor, on the easternmost axis, there is a two-wing, panelled door with a transom light. On the other axes, the windows are jambed and two-wing, with each of the wings divided into three sections. The transom light is divided into five sections by narrow muntins, segmented like the slats of a folding fan.

The interior of the church has one nave with a transept. The nave and the chancel have barrel vaults with lunettes. Above the intersection of the nave and the transept, there is a dome on pendentives. The barrel vaults rest on wall pillars, which are topped with high capitals decorated with stylized leaves. The painted ornaments on the walls highlight their architectural features. The polychromes around the window openings on the arches are reminiscent of Gothic decorations. On the pillars supporting the arches, there is a candelabrum ornament. In the areas under the arches, there are oval frames with symbols relating to: Arma Christi, Old Testament, Eucharist and the martyrdom of saints. The four Evangelists are depicted on the pendentives of the dome. The dome is decorated with a representation of famous saints adoring the crucified Christ against the background of the sky.

The fixtures and fittings of the church include the main altar and two side altars, two windows of the benefactors’ gallery in the southern wall of the chancel, the pulpit, the Stations of the Cross and a choir gallery with a pipe organ. All fixtures and fittings come from the 19th century - the time of the remodelling of the church. They are representative of the Baroque style.

The object is accessible all year round. It can be visited outside service times upon prior arrangement by telephone.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc-Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź 5 March 2020

Bibliography

• Record sheet, Parish Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, compiled by Ambroziewicz T., 1982, Archives of the Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź and the Archives of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw.
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, vol. 2: Województwo łódzkie, edited by Jerzy Z. Łoziński, Warszawa 1954, p. 32