History of the structure

The church was built in 1766-67 from the foundation of Count Ernest von Götz, serving as an Evangelical temple. It was probably built on the site of a previous wooden church, existing already in the Middle Ages, which from the 16th century belonged to the Protestants. After 1945 the church was taken over by Catholics. Currently it is a branch of the parish of the Holy Trinity and the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Rosary in Byczyna. The temple was partially flooded in 1997, as a result of which the floor in the chancel section was destroyed. The roof sheathing was replaced in the early 1990s, and the church was thoroughly cleaned in 2013.

Description of the structure

The church is an oriented building, located in the northern part of the village, next to a side road leading to the main road to Kostów. A wooden fence surrounds the temple. It is a wooden building, erected as a log structure on a brick foundation, with a pole-shaped tower on the western side. The ground plan of the church consists of a rectangular nave and a narrower triangular closed presbytery, to which a rectangular sacristy adjoins from the north. The dominant feature of the church is the square tower, which is located slightly away from the roof of the nave. It is boarded vertically, divided by slats into three storeys and crowned by a Baroque cupola and lantern. Originally the external walls of the chancel and the western wall of the sacristy were boarded. At present, all external walls are covered with vertical boarding with batten siding of the joints. Three entrances lead to the interior of the church - in the basement of the tower, in the middle of the nave’s southern elevation, and through the sacristy. The body of the church in the nave part is covered with a high gable roof with a simple gable on the western side and a five-sided roof over the chancel. A small, one-storey sacristy is covered by a three-sided roof, perpendicular to the temple. Window openings were closed with a flattened segmental arch. The interior is covered with a flat plank ceiling with oiled ceiling and crown moulding. Above the pipe organ there is a small wooden false vault. Below, a wooden choir gallery, supported by two square columns, with a triaxial projection with a concave-convex line. On the window sill of the music gallery there is a Rococo painting decoration. Single-flight stairs located in the north-western corner of the nave facilitate access to the choir gallery. Along the north wall of the nave at the level of the choir there is a gallery with a full balustrade. Among the preserved furnishings of the church the following deserve special attention: an eighteenth-century collator bench painted in floral patterns with coats of arms cartouches, a folk-baroque pulpit with depictions of the Evangelists and Christ the Good Shepherd, as well as the main altar.

Visitor access: The structure can be viewed from the outside, the interior is open to visitors during services.

Author: Katarzyna Latocha, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 28-06-2018

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. VII: Województwo opolskie, z. 4: powiat kluczborski, ed. T. Chrzanowski and M. Kornecki, Warsaw 1968, pp. 18-19.
• Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction. Kościół poewangelicki, ob. fil. pw. św. Jana Chrzciciela, compiled by J. Skarbek, 1998.
• Wierzgoń A., Kościoły drewniane na Śląsku Opolskim, Opole 1995, p. 64.