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St Vitus Parish Church complex - Zabytek.pl

St Vitus Parish Church complex


church Karczew

Address
Karczew, Ks. Władysława Żaboklickiego

Location
woj. mazowieckie, pow. otwocki, gm. Karczew - miasto

A Late Baroque St Vitus Church, designed probably by Karol Antoni Bay, erected in the years 1728-1732 with the preservation of the earlier chapel, and expanded in the years 1911-13 to the design of Hugo Kundera, is an important element of the former development of the town and bears witness to its rich history.

The temple, and in particular its plastic front façade, is distinctive for its high-quality architecture. Its exceptional style was inspired by the work of Guarino Guarini, an architect from Piedmont, as well as the Bohemian milieu, and as such it cannot be associated with any other examples of sacred architecture of Warsaw and its vicinities. Valuable fittings and surroundings of the monument as well as a bell tower from the turn of 18th and 19th century were also covered by monument preservation policy.

History

Karczew is one of the oldest settlements of the southern Mazovia, established in the late 14th century by the representatives of the Duda Karczewski family of the Jasieńczyk coat of arms. The town obtained municipal rights in 1548. Approx. 1488 a wooden church of St Vitus and Bartholomew, founded by, among others, Paweł and Marcin Karczewski, was erected in the town. Around 1541 a brick, square chapel of the Karczewski family was added thereto. During the fire of 1577 the church burned down. Around 1603 a new wooden church was erected; it included two chapels and, most probably, the rebuilt Karczewski family chapel. The church was consecrated only in 1667. A stone temple was erected in the years 1728-1732 owing to the funds of Franciszek Bieliński, Grand Marshal of the Crown, whose father bought Karczew and Otwock properties after 1685. In 1733 the new church was consecrated by Bishop Andrzej Stanisław Załuski. An interesting fact is that the new temple was added to the preserved Karczewski family chapel. Probably around 1740 a symmetric chapel on the other side of the nave was erected, thus the building gained the shape of a cross. It is believed that the author of the church design was Karol Bay. Jakub Fontana, previously recognised as the temple’s designer, worked at its expansion by side porches in 1743. In 1768 the church was founded again by the Starost of Czerwice, Franciszek Bieliński. The church underwent renovation works in 1815. After the fire of 1833 the reconstruction works were supervised by an architect Krzysztof Wilhelm Dürring. Another fire in 1865 caused numerous damages that were gradually removed until 1883. An organ gallery was altered at that time. In 1906 a cornerstone was laid under the expansion of the church that took place in the years 1911-1913 to the design of an architect Hugo Kundera. In place of a demolished eastern part of the Baroque building, stylistically eclectic transept, presbytery, two chapels, sacristy and a storage shed were added. In 1915 the expanded church was consecrated by cardinal Aleksander Kakowski. During the acts of war in 1944 the roof, a part of the vault and the front façade’s gable were damaged. They were repaired quite quickly.

Description

The historic complex is situated in the centre of the town, on a quadrangular, fenced plot, located in the irregular area surrounded by an arch-shaped Stare Miasto Street and Rev. W. Żaboklicki Street. The church is situated in the eastern part of the plot overgrown with old tree stands; on its north-western edge, there is a Classicist, brick bell tower with an arcaded, open structure crowned with a pyramid hipped roof. The church building is built of brick, plastered and oriented. As a result of transformations, the building gained a compact plan, albeit a bit complex. In the three-bay nave, whose extreme bays have concave side walls, the central, wider bay is communicated with square chapels (in the south, there is an old Karczewski family chapel from the 16th century or the early 17th century). In the north, it is accentuated by porches from approx. 1743, while in the south, by chapels erected during the expansion of the church in the years 1911-1913. A transept, equal in height to the nave and terminating in a semicircle, as well as a presbytery with a flattened faux cupola on the crossing, date back to that period. The presbytery is accentuated by the sacristy and the storage shed on the sides. Roofs are covered with sheet metal; gable roofs over the corpus, multi-pitched or pent roofs over particular added parts. The chapel, added to the transept on the northern side of the nave, was crowned with a cupola with a lantern, which makes it resemble a Renaissance cupola chapel. The presbytery part is crowned with a semi-cupola, while the rooms on its sides are covered with mansard roofs with dormers. The body is diversified owing to a steeple with a cupola over the nave crossing as well as towers at the presbytery. The front façade is distinctive for its unique, Late Baroque form on the wavy line, three-bay and two-storey with a tall, elaborate gable where concave lines prevail. Its plastic form consists of doubled Tuscan pilasters supporting pronounced, mitred entablature - surprisingly bent under the gable, discontinued gables and volutes, niches, oculi and oval windows. On the sides, the front façade is accentuated by newer screen volutes crowning the façades of porches. The application of fluted, obliquely arranged pilasters accentuating a column recessed between them and supporting elaborate, plastic entablature as well as oblique arrangement of vault arches, is reminiscent of Guarini’s work and can also be deemed extraordinary. As regards the interior, it is worth paying attention to Baroque fittings and stuccos, a boat-shaped pulpit, fragments of a gravestone of a child, Piotr Mikołaj Karczewski, who died in 1601, paintings by an outstanding draughtsman and parishioner Michał Elwiro Andriolli and a Renaissance plaque commemorating a bourgeois Melchior Walbach placed outside.

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, 30-12-2014.

Bibliography

  • Karta Ewidencyjna, Kościół parafialny pw. św. Wita, oprac. J. Domino, Karczew, 1987, Archiwum NID.
  • Karta Ewidencyjna, Dzwonnica, oprac. J. Domino, Karczew, 1987, Archiwum NID.
  • Faryna-Paszkiewicz H., Omilanowska M., Pasieczny R., Atlas zabytków architektury w Polsce, Warszawa 2001, s. 293.
  • Guttmejer K., Kościół w Karczewie pod Warszawą, :Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki, t. 37, 1992,  s. 315-331
  • Kałuszko J., Ajdacki P. Otwock i okolice, Pruszków 2006, s. 190-192,
  • Karpowicz M., Łódź na filarze, [w]: Piękne nieznajome. Warszawskie zabytki XVII i XVIII w. BMW 1986, s. 274-286
  •  Oktabiński K. Tradycja Mazowsza powiat otwocki, Przewodnik subiektywny, Warszawa 2009, s. 64-67
  • Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, t. X: Województwo warszawskie, z. 13: Powiat otwocki, oprac. Galicka Izabella, Żyłko Elżbieta, Warszawa 1963, s. 2-5.
  • Żabicki J., Leksykon zabytków architektury Mazowsza i Podlasia, Warszawa 2010, s. 65-66
  • http://www.parafiakarczew.pl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=4&Itemid=16 - dostęp 30-12-2014 r.

Category: church

Architecture: Baroque

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_14_BK.180033, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_14_BK.304317