The church was built as part of the urban planning scheme of the workers’ residential estate at a paper factory and represents material evidence of the history of Jeziorna.

History

In 1887 the paper factory in Jeziorna, whose beginnings date back to the 18th century, was purchased by the Joint Stock Society of the Mirków Paper Factory near Wieruszów, whose main shareholders were the Kronenberg and Natanson families of bankers. Following the relocation of the plant from Mirków, a sharp increase in the production levels took place in Jeziorna. This triggered the need to create a residential estate with a social programme for the workers. It began to be extended in the early 20th century. For the purpose of the factory’s settlement and nearby villages, the church was built in the years 1907-1909. It was located on the southern outskirts of the estate, on a plot donated by the management board of the factory. Rev. Wincenty Tymieniecki, a parish priest from Słomczyn (and later the first bishop of the Łódź Diocese), initiated the construction of the temple. In 1905, the construction committee for the church, consisting of 52 persons, was established. The church was erected as a filial church of the Słomczyn parish, according to the design of Hugon Kuder, and was funded by the plant’s co-owner, Edward Natanson, and contributions made by the local community. In the 1930s the temple was fitted with a Gothic Revival altar of St Joseph, designed by Antoni Bogaczyk (ceremoniously consecrated in 1931), stations of the cross and two confessionals. The building survived World War II. Three bells in the tower were consecrated in 1949. On 2 March 1957 the Primate of Poland, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński established a parish at the church. In 1972 the church underwent the first renovation since the completion of the construction. During the second renovation in 1989 the roof tiles were replaced with copper sheet. In 2000 clocks were mounted on the tower and in 2008 a stained glass painting representing St Joseph with Child was installed in the front rose window. In 2009 the building underwent a series of refurbishment works, during which, among others, the windows were replaced, new benches were installed and the Stations of the Cross were renovated. A year later the preservation works of the 18th-century pipe organ casing originating from the church in Słomczyn took place. In 2012 a new main door was installed with a series of cast bas-reliefs as well as a stone tympanum with a scene from the Last Supper, authored by Prof. Gustaw Zemła. He is also an author of a figure of St Joseph placed in front of the church, donated by the parishioners to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the temple. In 2018 a part of the historic church fencing was destroyed.

Description

The church is located in the eastern part of the town, on the north-west side of the intersection of Wojska Polskiego Avenue and Mirkowska Street. It is picturesquely located near a pond, at a canal linking the old upper and lower paper factory. It is surrounded with a historic, openwork, brick fencing with wicket gates and gates with brick pillars. Infills of new bricks are visible and its north part has collapsed. The temple faces the south-west with its chancel and is made of non-plastered bricks, except for certain decorative elements. The building comprises a rectangular, single-nave body with a transept and a chancel terminating in a semi-hexagon, ending with smaller annexes on the sides. A tall quadrangular bell tower, positioned on the axis, dominates at the front. It has a distinguished narrower second storey, terminating at the corners in four small turrets. The lower part is flanked with a pair of lower and narrower towers. They are all crowned with soaring polygonal cupolas, of which the one on top of the main tower is the largest and is crowned with a sphere and a crucifix. The temple is covered with steep roofs clad in sheet metal: the gable-type ones over the transept and the nave with dovetail joints and the multi-hipped ones over the chancel’s terminating vista and side extensions. The intersection of the naves is accentuated by a soaring steeple crowned with a sphere surmounted with a crucifix. On the sides, in a corner between the transept and the nave, there are low diagonal porches housing side entrances to the church. A lower vestibule preceded by stairs is added to the north extension of the chancel, while the south sacristy has a large, pointed-arch portal crowned with a triangular gable. The façades are adorned with a rich repertoire of Gothic Revival forms: pinnacles, stepped buttresses with steep recesses clad in sheet metal, narrow, pointed-arch blinds and window openings surrounded by profiled bricks, either single or grouped in twos or threes. Parts of cornices are decorated with brick friezes. Pairs of windows with a crowning oculus in side façades terminate in a common pointed-arch frame. The end walls of the transept are distinctive with their sumptuous decorations in the form of gables adorned with pinnacles and compositions of plastered pointed-arch blinds. The walls are decorated with large blinds adorned with brick detailing and a large rose window consisting of oculi and an arcaded frieze below. A similar set of forms with trefoil stained glass windows were used on the walls terminating the chancel as well as in the front tower, above the main portal, where the rose window is composed of semi-circular windows arranged around a central oculus. Façades of upper, narrower parts of towers are pierced by narrow bell openings with shutters. They are arranged in pairs in the main tower and above them the facades are crowned with triangular gables with a clock, terminating in a pinnacle. Modestly plastered interior of the church is decorated with wall pilasters and slender columns supporting the groin vault with pointed arches and the diamond vault above the chancel. Gothic Revival confessionals and the main altar with a figure of St Joseph placed against a painted landscape of Jeziorna with the church and the paper factory are consistent with the church architecture. A pipe organ casing dating back to 1730 is located on the choir gallery.

The monument is available to visitors outside the hours of religious services.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Regional Branch in Warsaw. 05-04-2018

Bibliography

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