The temple was built according to the design of a renowned Poznań architect Roger Sławski. The shape of the mass and architectural details are characterized by high artistic class. The interior partially retains the late Baroque furnishings from the previous church. The temple is surrounded by a 15th-century cemetery, where the Chłapowski family burial chapel from the 19th century is located.

History

Glesno is one of the oldest villages of the Wyrzysk commune. In the early Middle Ages, there was a lowland-type settlement, situated on the peninsula of a lake, to the east of today’s manor house. The oldest mention of Glesno, then called Glistno, dates back to 1418. It was a nobleman’s village. In the 15th century the Tuchołek family from Mrozów and Dąbrówka inherited it, in the next century the Gliszczyński and Słupski families. In the mid- 17th century the estate belonged to the Smogulecki family, in the second half of the century to the Rębowski family and later to the Gosławski family. In the 18th century Glesno was owned by the Korytowski family, then by the Trąmpczyński family, from whom, at the beginning of the 19th century, the estate was purchased by the castellan’s wife Franciszka Bnińska of Samostrzela, who settled her grandson there, Count Konstanty Bniński. In 1899, Glesno was inherited by the granddaughter of count Bniński - Izabella Chłapowska née Kalkstein. The last owners of Glesno before World War II were Emilia and Mieczysław Chłapowski.

The church in Glesno was probably built at the end of the 13th century, founded by the dukes of Wielkopolska A parish priest named Maciej was mentioned in 1418. The then existing small church was a brick, one-nave building, erected on a rectangular floor plan, with a chancel closed on three sides from the east. According to visitation records from 1653 it was a brick building, with a separate bell tower built nearby. The patron was the wife of the starost of Nakło, Smogulecka. In 1747 the then owners of Glesno, Kazimierz Korytowski, the starost of Grabowo, and his wife Konstancja, enlarged the church by adding two side chapels. A tower on the west side and a new sacristy were also built at this time. The late Gothic church was demolished in 1923. Some of its walls may have been used in the construction of the building that has survived to this day. The plans for the new church were drawn up by Roger Sławski, a well-known architect from Poznań, probably already in the second decade of the 20th century (Sławski’s watercolour from 1915 depicting the planned church is held in the collection of the National Museum in Poznań). The neo-Baroque church was built in 1924-25 from the foundation of the then owners of Glesno, Emilia and Mieczysław Chłapowski, and the parishioners. In 1925 the temple was consecrated by the bishop of Gniezno Antoni Laubitz. In 1950, the interior of the church was painted and decorated with polychrome work by A. Błaszczyński. In the following years the church was repaired several times, e.g. in 1984 the roof was repaired, in 2000 the roofing was replaced, in 2002 the elevation works were carried out.

Description of the structure

The church of St. Hedwig is located in the central part of Glesno, by the village road, between the village buildings and the manor-park complex. The oriented church is surrounded by a wooded area (former churchyard), fenced with a wall made of stone blocks. A gate with two wickets, enclosed by plastered pillars, leads to the church grounds. On the southeastern side of the church there is a brick burial chapel of the Chłapowski family. Near the church tower, there is an irregular granite boulder decorated with an engraving depicting a kneeling human figure with outstretched hands, associated with a prehistoric circle of “Pomeranian sculptures” or a medieval tombstone.

The neo-Baroque church consists of a three-bay nave, two polygonal side chapels in the middle bay, forming a kind of transept, and a narrower, single-span, straight closed chancel. On both sides of the chancel there are two rectangular annexes closed from the south and north by an arch segment: on the northern side - the sacristy, on the southern side - the storeroom. From the west – a tower on a square floor plan. The nave is covered by a high hipped roof, the slightly lower chancel by a three-hipped roof. There are flat roofs above the small annexes at the chancel. The side chapels are covered with domed hipped roofs. The entire building is dominated by a tall, two-storeyed tower topped with a bulbous cupola with a lantern.

The church is a brick building. Its walls are covered with plaster. The roofs of the nave and chancel are covered with ceramic tiles, and the chapels and tower cupola is clad with sheet metal. The nave and chancel are covered with barrel vaults with lunettes, over the crossing bay - cross vaults, over the side chapels - hemispherical vaults with lunettes.

The elevations of the church are divided by simple pilasters, crowned with profiled cornices. The windows are usually topped with semi-circular or oval arches. The tower’s elevations are single-axis, divided by profiled cornices with a canopy. In the axis of the lower storey on the western side there is a main entrance topped with a semi-circular arch, framed by a pair of pilasters supporting a segmental pediment. In the axis of the tower’s northern elevation there is a side entrance topped with a semi-circular arch. In the second storey, large bell openings topped with a semi-circular arch and covered with shutters. The elevations of the chapels are five-axis, divided by Ionic pilasters supporting the entablature. Oval windows. In the western walls of the chapels there are semicircular entrances with modest portals. On both sides of each of the chapels, the windows of the nave topped with semi-circular arches are visible. Side elevations of the chancel partly obscured by side annexes, with an oval window in each elevation. A similar window is located in the east elevation of the chancel. In both annexes of the chancel from the west - an entrance closed with a concave-convex arch, from the east - a window topped with a semi-circular arch. The annexes are topped with cornices and full roof parapets with a fanciful concave-convex pattern.

The single space interior is dominated by a transverse bay formed from the side chapels, which gives the church its central character. The chancel is opened to the nave - like the two chapels - with a wide semicircular arcade. The walls are supported by the wall pillars supporting the arches. The pillars and arches are decorated with polychrome with floral motifs. In the western span of the nave there is a wooden choir gallery supported by a pair of poles. The choir sill is decorated with carved decorations.

The interior fixtures and fittings include, among others, a neo-Baroque architectural main altar with a 19th-century painting of the patron saint of the church - St. Hedwig in the centre field and late-Baroque sculptures of St. Stanislaus, Adalbert, Casimir the King, Catherine, Barbara and an unidentified saint (18th century), from the former church. By the eastern walls of the chapels there are two side altars, made around 1950. A carved group of the Crucifixion was placed in the altar on the south side, on the north side - a figure of the Virgin Mary adored by angels. The church also has a neo-Baroque pulpit, decorated with late-Baroque sculptures of the four evangelists from the second half of the 18th century and a baroque-classicist baptismal font from the end of the 18th century in the shape of a goblet supported by an angel.

Visitor access: The church can be visited both from the outside and inside. More information about the parish and the Holy Mass schedule can be found on the website of the Bydgoszcz diocese: diecezja.bydgoszcz.pl

Compiled by: Krzysztof Jodłowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 02.08.2017

Bibliography

• Durczykiewicz L., Dwory polskie w Wielkim Księstwie Poznańskim, Poznań 1912, p. 12.
• Church record sheet, compiled by E. Kledzik 1994 (archive of the Voivodeship Heritage Protection Office in Poznań, Branch in Piła)
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, Vol. XI, z. 20: Wyrzysk, Nakło i okolice, Warsaw 1980, pp. 4-6.
• Klause G., Roger Sławski : 1871-1963 : architect, Poznań 1999, pp. 177-78.
• Kohte J., Verzeichnis der Kunstdenkmȁler der Provinz Posen, IV, Berlin 1897, p. 166.
• Kozierowski S., Szematyzm historyczny ustrojów parafialnych dzisiejszej archidiecezji gnieźnieńskiej. Poznań 1934, pp. 44-45.
• Der Kreis Wirsitz : ein westpreussisches Heimatbuch, compiled by Herbert Papstein, Bad Zwischenahn 1982, pp. 421-23.
• Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego…, Vol. II, ed. B. Chlebowski [et al.], Warsaw 1881, p. 580.
• Tomala J., Murowana architektura romańska i gotycka w Wielkopolsce, Vol. 1, Architektura sakralna, Kalisz 2007, pp. 147-48.