Simple divisions and modest architectural decoration of the brick facade refer to the Romanesque Revival style

History

In 1787, a small oriented timber-framed chapel was erected, to which a brick sacristy was added on the north side in 1857. In the years 1883-1885 the existing chapel was expanded by adding a western part in the Romanesque Revival style. In the 1970s the timber frame walls were bricked up on the inside.

Originally a cemetery chapel, now the filial church of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

Description of the structure

The village of Borek is located in the eastern part of Rawicz district, on the south side of the road from Jutrosin to Rawicz, 5 km south-west of Jutrosin and 1 km south-west of Dubin. The church is oriented, situated on a small hill with a circular shape opposite the road leading to Domaradzice. The hill on which the church cemetery is located is surrounded by a ditch and a fence. On the south side of the church there is a second cemetery, similar in shape to a triangle.

The church has a rectangular floor plan, closed on the eastern side with three chancel walls. The north elevation of the nave is adjoined by a sacristy on a rectangular floor plan, situated roughly on its axis. Three entrances lead to the interior of the church - the main one in the façade and two side ones in the northern wall of the nave and the western wall of the sacristy. The body of the church is cuboidal, closed on the eastern side with a three-sided chancel, with a cuboidal ridge turret raised above the nave on the extension of the triangular western gable. The shape of the sacristy, which is lower by half, is also cuboidal. The nave is covered with a high gable roof, whose extended northern plane forms the shed roof of the sacristy, the chancel is closed with a three-span roof and the ridge turret with a tented roof. The roofs of the nave, chancel and sacristy are covered with ceramic tiles, and the ridge turret with metal sheets. Of the original half-timbered chapel, built in 1787, the three-sided chancel and part of the northern wall have been preserved on the eastern side. The remaining walls were built of solid ceramic brick on a stone foundation with the use of zendrówka brick or darker clinker brick forming a cross in the gable part of the façade, decorative ornaments on the sacristy elevation, its under eaves frieze and the date of construction (1857), placed above the entrance leading to it in the western wall.

The façade of the church is brick, two-storey, triaxial (the axial divisions are determined by window blends closed with semicircular arches), framed by lesenes on the sides, slightly protruding in the central part with a rectangular door opening in the axis, closed with a segmented arch. The string course and crowning cornices emphasize the serrated friezes. The façade is crowned by a high, triangular, two-storey and one-axial gable whose base is flanked by two cuboid posts covered with tented roofs. Its central part is accentuated by two lesenes embracing the window opening, on the extension of which there is a quadrilateral ridge turret raised above the roof of the nave, covered with a tented roof topped with a cross. The remaining facades are brick, except for the timber framed walls of the original chapel. The window openings of the side elevations of the nave are rectangular, closed with full arches (except for the rectangular window in the frame part of the northern wall). The door openings in the north elevation of the nave and the sacristy are rectangular, closed with a segmental arch and a full arch respectively. The corners of the sacristy elevation are accented with lesenes, on the extension of which there are rectangular, stepped pillars flanking the shed roof covering it.

The interior of the church is single-spaced, closed with a three-sided chancel. The walls are plastered. Their upper parts are surrounded by a painted frieze with a plant motif. In the western part of the nave there is a choir gallery supported by two wooden pillars with a full balustrade, bulging in the middle part. The church furnishings, mostly 18th century, include an architectural main altar, side altar, pulpit, confessional and organ. The main altar has a spatial composition consisting of a mensa with a tabernacle placed on it and flanked by the figures of Ezekiel and Moses on pedestals, as well as a wall mounted altar set on a separate foundation with the image of the Transfiguration of the Lord in its central part.

Visitor access: The site is accessible to the public.

Compiled by Anna Dyszkant, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 15.12.2017

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Vol. V: Województwo poznańskie, z. 21: Powiat rawicki, ed. T. Ruszczyńska A. Sławska, Warsaw 1971, p. 3.