History

The village of Łąkoszyn, owned by nobility, is first mentioned in the 14th century. The parish in the village was founded by the archbishop of Gniezno, Jarosław Bogoria Skotnicki in 1359. At the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, the owners established a town here, as confirmed by historical records from 1417. In the 15th century, the growing town of Łąkoszyn (included in the Łęczyckie Voivodeship), situated on the southern bank of the Ochla River became a strong competitor for the town of Kutno located on the opposite bank of the river (situated in the Rawskie Voivodeship).

Kutno was victorious in that competition, as evidenced by the fact that in the 18th century Łąkoszyn was already a poor village with about 100 inhabitants.

Today’s temple was predated by a wooden church, built in 1758. In 1909, the church burned down following a lightning strike. The items salvaged from the wooden church included a tabernacle and one of the paintings.

The present-day building was erected between 1909 and 1911. According to church documents, the design was created by Strzeżysław Bowbelski (1877-1957) - an architect and engineer (a social activist residing in Kutno, in 1913 the president of the Mutual Credit Society in Kutno). In the years 1898-1905, he studied at the Warsaw University of Technology.

The temple was consecrated by Bishop Kazimierz Ruszkiewicz on 19 October 1912.

In 1929, the village of Łąkoszyn was included in the administrative boundaries of Kutno.

The tabernacle and the painting from the 18th-century church are exhibited in the church.

Description

The church is situated to the south of the Ochla River, in the district of Łąkoszyn, in Łąkoszyńska Street - the main road of this district. It stands in the middle of a land plot surrounded by a fence. The church has the form of a three-nave hall with a lower and narrower chancel. It is a brick structure featuring decorative panels filled with smooth plasterwork.

The floor plan of the church comprises a rectangular nave, whose western wall is adjoined by the rectangular chancel, terminated semi-hexagonally from the west. On both sides of the chancel, there are sacristies, each erected on a floor plan of a rectangle. In the north-eastern corner of the nave, there is a tower on a square plan. It protrudes slightly beyond the façade of the nave. In the western part, the southern and northern walls of the nave adjoin the three-sided apses which terminate the transept. At the southern wall of the nave, in the eastern part, there is a porch on a rectangular plan. The floor plan also comprises a tower at the western elevation, built on a half-circle plan, as well as massive buttresses placed at all the corners and arranged rhythmically against the northern and southern walls of the nave.

The nave is covered with a high gable roof. The chancels and the parts terminating the transept are covered with their own, multi-hipped roofs. Over the sacristy and over the southern and eastern porches, there are shed roofs. The tower is crowned with a quadrilateral spire, whereas the turret on a half-circle plan is topped with a conical roof.

The front elevation is asymmetrical and consists of two parts. The southern and central part forms the façade of the church nave with a tower containing a staircase. At the northern corner of this wall, there is a multi-storey bell tower. The corners of the nave and of the tower are supported by buttresses. On the ground level storey, in the middle, there is the main entrance opening. It is rectangular and topped with a full arch. It is preceded by an arcade placed between the towers, topped with a full arch, in the form of an open porch covered with a shed roof. Above the porch, there is a rosette with a stained glass window. Further above, there is a cordon cornice. At the top of this part of the façade, there are rectangular, narrow, full-arched blendes, arranged in a cascade-like manner along the slopes of the gable roof. The surfaces of the blendes are covered with smooth plasterwork. Centrally on the front elevation of the tower, on three storeys, there are narrow, rectangular window openings topped with a full arch. Above the third storey, there is a cordon cornice. Further above, there is a rectangular blende topped with a segmental arch, divided into five narrow, vertical decorative panels, filled with smooth plasterwork. The three central decorative panels were pierced with narrow window openings topped with a full arch. Above, there are five similar decorative panels placed on a segmental arch. The storeys are separated by a cordon cornice. Over the cordon cornice, there is a high, rectangular, full-arched decorative panel, topped with a rosette. In its central part, there is a rectangular window opening with a shutter. Above, on the full arch, there are five rectangular, vertical blendes. At the top of the storey, there is an under-eaves cornice. The other walls of this part of the tower are articulated in a similar way. Above, there is a small roof covering the step of the narrowing tower. The tower finial rises above it. The walls of the low base are articulated with three rectangular window openings topped with a segmental arch. The tower is covered with a slender pyramidal roof surmounted by a cross.

The northern and southern elevations are divided by rhythmically spaced buttresses. On the surfaces between the buttresses, in the attic part, there are rectangular window openings topped with a segmental arch. Each of them is divided by posts into five sections glazed with stained glass. The elevations are crowned with an eaves cornice.

On the walls of the apse of the transept and of the apse of the chancel, there are decorative panels topped with a full arch. In the area under the arch, there are rosettes divided into smaller sections by narrow muntins. Under the eaves cornice on each wall, there are four rectangular decorative panels topped with a full arch and filled with smooth plasterwork. In the northern and southern wall of the sacristy, on the ground floor, there are three rectangular, vertically positioned window openings topped with a full arch. The windows are divided into many sections. At the top, there is a blende in the form of a trefoil, filled with smooth plaster.

The church is open to the public.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc – Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage, 31 July 2019

Bibliography

• Stefański K., Polska architektura sakralna w poszukiwaniu stylu narodowego, Łódź 2000, p. 133,
• Kutno. Dzieje Miasta, edited by Rosin R., Warszawa - Łódź 1984,