The Parish Church of St Nicholas is an example of the continuation of the tradition of bricklayers and local guild builders. It has modest style features typical of rural worship buildings of the second half of the 17th century.

History of the site

The history of Gorenice goes back to the 14th century. Historical sources report that the village existed after 1325 and before 1335, when its name appears in Peter’s pence inventories. The exact time of its establishment cannot be determined, yet the settlement can be assumed to have existed at least from the beginning of the 14th century, just like the church, since Peter’s pence was collected there. In the 15th century, lead ore started to be extracted on the boundary between Gorenice and Ostrężnica. Separate mining authorities were seated in the village, most probably appointed by the owner. The Parish Church of St Nicholas was referenced as a wooden temple in 1440. However, its condition gradually deteriorated “due to old age,” as the Rev. Wiśniewski put it. In the same place, in the years 1645-1673, a new brick temple was erected owing to the sponsorship of the Szembek family. It was an oriented, single-nave church with the chancel closed with a semicircular apse. Threatened by a construction disaster, the church was partially demolished and rebuilt in the years 1726-1731 thanks to the castellan of Sieradz, Michał Stanisław Tarnowski; at the same time, a free-standing belfry was added from the west.  The Baroque and Rococo equipment comes from the 17th and 18th centuries and had been moved from the previous wooden church.

Site description

The church stands in the middle of the village, north of the main village road. It is a Baroque, oriented, single-nave temple with a semicircular chancel, the sacristy from the north and a treasury on the upper floor. The rectangular, two-span nave, which is wider than the chancel, has a porch to the south. The interior had a barrel vault with lunettes on the transverse ribs; the stucco in the nave is linear and geometric. A rood with a semicircular curve, external and internal walls divided by pilasters. The façade is three-bay with a triangular abutment. The temple has three portals: the main one with a braided ornament, rosettes and a cartouche with the Rola and Ostoja coats of arms, the other two are winged portals. The main altar has six columns (four larger ones at the bottom and two smaller ones at the top), with the image of Our Lady of the Snows with Child. There are also side altars from the 17th century, one of them (on the right) containing the worshipped painting of St Anthony of Padua (from 1691). At the south-west corner of the church, there is a belfry built during the reconstruction of the church in the first half of the 17th century (with a bell from 1762). 

The structure can be viewed from the outside.

Author of the note Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 05/10/2015

Bibliography

• Decyzja nr  rej. A-336/M w sprawie wpisania dobra kultury do rejestru zabytków nieruchomych województwa krakowskiego z dnia  06-12-1971 r., archiwum MWKZ Kraków
• Dyba O., Majka M., Zabytki architektury i budownictwa w Polsce, vol. 18, part 2, Województwo krakowskie, Warszawa 1995
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. I, Województwo krakowskie, no. 12, Powiat olkuski, Warszawa 1953
• Krasnowolski B., Leksykon zabytków architektury Małopolski, Warszawa 2013
• Dziechciarz O., Przewodnik po ziemi olkuskiej, vol. I, Olkusz, 2000
• Kiryk F., Kołodziejczyk  R., (ed.) Dzieje Olkusza i regionu olkuskiego, vol. I-II, Warszawa, Kraków, 1978
• Wiśniewski J., Historyczny opis kościołów, miast, zabytków i pamiątek w olkuskiem,  Marjówka Opoczyńska 1933