The feature was recognised as valuable for regional architecture due to its spatial arrangement and shape of architecture as well as due to the author of the design, Józef Pius Dziekoński.

History

The church complex in Latowicz has existed since the 11th century. The parish with a wooden church was mentioned in the source literature already in 1427. Subsequent churches were erected in: 1522, founded by Anna Radziwiłł, Duchess of Mazovia (burned down in 1613), around 1629 by efforts of Stanisław Falęcki, parish priest of Latowicz, and in 1733, founded by August Aleksander Czartoryski, Voivode of Ruthenia, Starost of Latowicz. The latter was demolished in 1918. The current church in the Gothic Revival style was erected in the years 1899-1911 to the design by architect Józef Pius Dziekoński. Elements of former wooden churches have survived in the interior: fragments of Baroque woodcarving from the 17th and 18th century on the left altar, paintings of the Adoration of the Holy Trinity from the 18th century and the Miracle of St Valentine from around mid 19th century on a shutter on the right altar. Movable fittings and a pulpit from the regency period of the second quarter of the 18th century and a masonry baptismal font from 1647 have survived from the previous structures.

Description

St Valentine parish church is located in the middle of the village, on a polygonal church square situated between the streets. The building was erected in the years 1899-1911 in the Gothic Revival style, on a Latin cross floor plan with three towers in the front. A foundation made of crude stone blocks, walls made of bricks, plastered on the inside. A three-nave church with a pronounced transept. A four-bay nave corpus; a chancel with semicircular arches, three-bay, of equal width to the nave. On the sides, width-wise of side naves: in the south a chapel of the Holy Mother, terminated in a triangle. At the transept, on the southern side, there is an altar niche; behind it, there is a corridor; at the end, there is a sacristy enclosed by three walls. Around the chancel enclosure there is a semi-circular ambulatory. Octagonal rooms on both sides of the transept arms. A tower body with a rectangular porch in the middle and localities on the sides. The body of the church is heavily fragmented. The main nave, transept and chancel of the equal height and width; beyond them, gable roofs covered with copper sheet. The main tower of equal width to the nave; four-storey, terminating in a hexagonal conical spire; next to it, corner turrets with octagonal spires. Sacristies, localities at the transept arms and side naves are lower than the main nave. Mono-pitched roofs over side naves; multi-hipped roofs over the remaining localities. The roof structure is made of rafter and queen-post as well as double-suspension trusswork. Metal windows; wooden, framed, panelled doors. Front façade composed of three towers and five axes. A tower projecting before the wall’s face on the central axis with a main portal. On extreme axes there are turrets, also projecting ahead of the walls’ faces. On inter-tower axes there are side, pointed-arch portals with chambranles and plastered tympanums. Beyond them, there is a rose window. The gable discontinued by a corbel cornice, with three pointed-arch, plastered blind windows; crenellation instead of cornice. The four-storey main tower, straight string course, above it - a corbel cornice; the third storey is demarcated by crenellation constituting an integral part of the wall. A pointed-arch, five-stepped main portal, accentuated with a triangular gable adorned with flower beds on the sides, crowned with a figure of the Holy Mother. The second storey with a triforium along the axis, in a pointed-arch panel; a bending string course extending into the third storey by a pointed-arch achivolt. A rose window in an achivolt. Side axes of the third storey without partitions. The fourth storey with a biforium on axes and a balcony on pronounced corbels. Crowned with triangular gables. Corners with octagonal turrets. All turret cupolas and the main spire are of a pointed-arch type. Analogous side turrets; on the lower storey - perpendicular with clearances on the axis; above - octagonal with faux buttresses, crowned with a corbel cornice and octagonal cupolas. Side façades arranged analogically: parts of turrets like on a front façade, façades of side naves with pointed-arch, stepped windows, tripartite with traceries. Small windows of the choir gallery at the turrets. Buttresses crowned with imposts between the axes. The main nave includes pairs of pointed-arch windows on the axis. The transept includes a tracery window, below which there is a triforium layout of pointed-arch blind windows. Corners terminating in three-stepped blind windows. Side localities at the transept and terminations of the sacristy with buttresses and tall, narrow, pointed-arch windows on axes. Entrance door under the windows. A chancel with analogous windows as the main nave. The chancel terminating in buttressed corners; lower half without partitions, upper half with two strips; triforiums in the lower strip, wide windows with straight traceries in the upper one. All façades crowned with corbel cornices, string courses and under-window cornices. The main nave is taller and twice as wide as the side ones, covered with a barrel vault with lunettes, resting on arches, opening towards side naves with pointed-arch archways on rectangular stepped pillars. Side nave walls with wide lesenes supporting volutes of vaults. Pairs of windows in lunettes; below - straight cornices. A western wall of the main nave of a pointed-arch type at the bottom, glyphed with a niche, with straight main door. Above it, pointed-arch, arcaded opening towards the choir gallery with a full balustrade decorated with trefoil panels in the crest. A pointed rood arch separating the main nave from the chancel. Side naves covered with groin and barrel vaults, resting on arches. Stepped, visibly projecting pillars at walls; between them - glyphed, pointed-arch windows. A five-bay transept, arranged just like the main nave. Along the side nave, in the southern wall, there is a pointed-arch opening towards the chapel; the northern wall includes an opening towards the altar niche. Chapels with stellar vaults. A chancel arranged similarly as the main nave, with a door to a sacristy, corridor and chapel. A chancel terminating vista opens towards the ambulatory through five pointed-arch arcades. A gallery over the arcades with pairs of pointed-arch arcades between pillars, connected by spiral pillars. Windows with traceries in lunettes. Vault strips of the terminating vista with volutes towards profiled, thin columns with Corinthian capitals. An ambulatory vaulted with a pointed-arch barrel. Localities include rooms on two levels.

The structure is open to visitors throughout the year, upon consent of the parish priest.

Compiled by Katarzyna Kosior, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw, 17-11-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Tom X Województwo Warszawskie, zeszyt 8 powiat miński, Instytut Sztuki PAN, Warszawa 1968 r.
• Atlas Zabytków Architektury w Polsce, H. Faryna - Paszkiewicz, M. Omilanowska, R. Pasieczny, Wydawnictwo naukowe PWN. Warszawa 2003 r.
• J. Żabicki, Leksykon zabytków architektury Mazowsza i Podlasia, Arkady, Warszawa 2010 r.
• Zabytki architektury i budownictwa w Polsce, woj. siedleckie, ODZ Warszwa 1988 r.
• Karta ewidencyjna zabytku architektury i budownictwa tzw Karta Biała, I. Dąbrowska 1997 r.