History

The first mentions of a wooden church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven, St Barbara, St Jacob the Apostle and the Ten Thousand Martyrs in Radziłów date back to the 15th century. In 1739, the present church was erected at the initiative of the erstwhile parish priest, Jakub Tafiłowski. Somewhere around the year 1778, a wooden bell tower was erected in the surrounding burial ground. It underwent renovation in the years 1822 and 1872. In the 1980s, a new, brick church was erected, with the old church being relocated to Kramarzewo along with the accompanying bell tower.

Description

The bell tower is located in the south-eastern section of the church cemetery. It was designed on a square floor plan as a two-storey structure with a cuboid outline, with an entrance on the western side. The ground-floor section of the bell tower is protected against the elements by a skirt roof clad with sheet metal. The tower is topped with a tented roof surmounted by a cross and spire. It is a wooden post-and-beam structure positioned on brick and stone foundations. Its walls are clad with vertically positioned weatherboards; the lower level of the tower features rectangular windows divided into six panes each. Above these windows rise the slender, rectangular bell openings with horizontal louvres, adorned with semi-circular window headers incorporating a trefoil motif.

The historical monument is open to visitors.

compiled by Iwona Górska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Białystok, 05-11-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. IX: Województwo łomżyńskie, issue 1: Łomża i okolice, prepared by Kałamajska-Saeed M., Warsaw 1982, pp. 53-4.
• Rudnicki J., Zabytki Ziemi Łomżyńskiej, Rajgród 2005, vol. 3, p. 126.