Copying masonry buildings in wood is a characteristic feature of the Polish architecture, and at the same time, unique on the European scale.

History

A parish in the old forest housing estate called Białe Miasto or Kampinos was founded most probably around 1730. The first recorded mention of the initial wooden church comes from 1540. The construction of the current wooden temple was initiated in 1773 by the then parish priest, Rev. Jan Forszet, and completed in 1782 by his successor, Rev. Jakub Żegocki. The church was designed by a Warsaw-based architect Lobe and founded by, among others, Ludwik Gutakowski - an owner of the village from 1776 onwards. The church was dedicated in 1791 by Bishop Antonin Pobóg Malinowski. It underwent multiple renovations, among others in 1921, when it was underpinned and plastered on the outside. After 1982, the shingled roofing of the nave corpus was replaced with steel sheets.

Description

The church is located in the centre of the village, on an elongated parcel surrounded by a metal openwork fence and a low plastered wall on the northern side of Chopin Street. The church area, overgrown with trees along the fence, neighbours on the park in the east and on the cemetery in the south. In front of the church façade, facing the street, there is a figure of the Holy Mary with the Child, founded in 1865 by parishioners as a thanksgiving for heroes of the January Uprising. A wooden bell tower is located at the wall surrounding the parcel; in the north, there are gravestones of parish priests from the 19th century. Wooden boards crowned with steep roofs, presenting reliefs of stations of the cross, are placed around the church.

The church building has a log wooden structure. It is underpinned, weatherboarded on the outside and plastered on the inside. A small-grain pine from the Kampinos Forest was used as a construction material. The feature was erected on a rectangular floor plan with a southern part enclosed on three sides (on the chancel side) and with two projecting quadrangular towers in the north. An aisleless interior covered with ceiling was partitioned by quadrangular piers into three naves. On the sides of the main altar there are low sacristy and treasury rooms, crowned with boxes on top. Access to the boxes is provided by a ladder leading through an opening in the ceiling. An organ gallery resting on pillars is found on the northern side. The walls are reinforced on the inside by studs in the form of pilasters. A three-storey façade, crowned with a semi-circular pediment, is accentuated by towers of equal height, projecting towards the front, covered with pyramidal tented roofs of sheet metal. Storeys of the façade and towers are demarcated by wooden cornices and a projecting eaves. The front façade on the axis is adorned with a portal and a window above, crowned with a triangular pediment. The openings terminate in profiled surrounds that are reminiscent of decorations distinctive for brick architecture. Rectangular and round openings of upper storeys of towers and front façade are filled with blinds made of planks. Modest side façades, crowned with a profiled cornice, are pierced by rectangular windows. The nave corpus is covered with a gable roof clad with sheet metal. In the interior, it is worth paying attention to altars from the second half of the 19th century, created to the design of architect Walery Jodłowski, a painting from the late 18th century presenting Christ on the Cross, most probably created by Franciszek Smuglewicz, as well as an image of the Holy Mother with the Child - of special worship, from the second half of the 17th century, called Our Lady of Kampinos.

The feature is available for visitors outside the hours of religious services.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw, 13-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Hertz L. Mazowsze, Warszawa 2005, s. 254
• Glinka T. , Kamiński M. , Piasecki M. Przygoda K, Walenciak A., Przewodnik Mazowsze północne , Warszawa 1998, s. 423
• Mirowski R. Kościoły drewniane najbardziej polskie…, Warszawa 2005, s. 110
• Szałygin J., Dziedzictwo drewnianej architektury w Polsce, „Ochrona Zabytków” 2013 nr 1-4 s. 283
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, t. X: Województwo warszawskie, z. 24: Powiat sochaczewski, oprac. Galicka Izabella, Sygietyńska Hanna i Kaczmarzyk Dariusz, Warszawa 1973, s. 13-15
• Mazowieckie kościoły drewniane, red. Jezierska B. i Nadolny R., Warszawa 2009, s. 44
• Karta Ewidencyjna, Kościół parafialny pw. Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny, oprac. Dobrowolska Barbara, Dobrowolski Jarosław, Kampinos 1982, Archiwum NID.