History

The church in Lisewo (German: Liessau) was built around 1350 and was most probably an extension to the chapel mentioned in the foundation charter in 1316. The brick foundation of the tower was built in the late 14th century. The preserved eastern gable most probably dates back to the same period. In the 17th century, the church was heavily damaged. In the records of 1647, it was mentioned as a ruin. In 1669, it was still not used for services. The renovation work involved alterations to the inner part of the western wall of the church. On 18 January 1818, a strong windstorm destroyed the tower dome, which was repaired and lowered in the same year (the date “1818” on the flag crowning the dome). Further construction work took place in 1836 (renovation of the sacristy, roof, tower, and main portal), 1853 (renovation of the eastern gable and roof cladding). In 1883, part of the roof truss was replaced according to a design by construction inspector Loebell from Malbork.

After the war, the renovation in 1974 involved removing oil paint from the ceiling and plaster from the splayed interior window reveals. In 2010, the roof and wooden tower structure were renovated.

The parish was founded in the early 14th century (around 1310?) and refounded on 16 June 1979.

Description

The church with the graveyard is located in the northern part of the village, on the east side of the main rural road from Tczew to Lichnowy. It is a free-standing oriented structure.

The Gothic church was built on a rectangular floor plan, without a separate chancel. The eastern part of the northern wall is adjoined by a rectangular sacristy, while the western wall by a square tower. The body of the church is compact and covered with a tall gable roof, sloping down onto into a mono-pitched roof covering the sacristy. The tower is a distinctive and diversified structure incorporated into the main body.

The church is built of brick laid in Gothic bond, on a stone plinth. The north and east wall of the sacristy are made of machine-made brick laid in cross bond (Venetian bond). The upper storeys of the tower are wooden. The west wall of the nave is a post-and-beam structure covered with an additional layer od masonry on the outside. The roof is clad with Dutch tiles; the tower dome with sheet metal. The roof truss is made of wood (half-open roof truss covered with weatherboards over the main body).

The façades are made of brick (except for the façades of the upper sections of the tower, which are wooden). The walls are crowned with a frieze and supported by stepped buttresses. The windows, blind windows and portals terminate in pointed arches and are mostly feature reveals. The east (gable-end) façade was designed symmetrically: tall, two-stepped gable, with three axes of double blind windows; blind windows on the outermost axes filled in only up to the line of the roof; openwork in the upper sections. The west façade almost entirely occupied the square-shaped tower, is made of brick on the ground floor, features a splayed pointed-arch portal along the axis; the upper storeys are wooden, taper towards the top, and are crowned with an octagonal belfry with a dome surmounted by a spire.

The single-space interior is aisleless. The corners of the porch below the tower contain visible wooden structural posts resting on a stone base.

The preserve lavish furnishings of the church include the Gothic sculpture of the Madonna and Child from the late 15th c., Late-Gothic stained glass window, Baroque sculptures from the main altar from the first half of the 18th c.

The structure is open to visitors. Viewing of the building is only possible by arrangement with the parish office in Lisewo Malborskie.

compiled by Teofila Lebiedź-Gruda, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 09-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Karta ewidencyjna (tzw. biała karta): Kościół parafialny pw. św. Mikołaja. Lisewo, autor J. Gzowski, 1984, w zbiorach OT NID w Gdańsku.
• Lubocka M., Żuławy. Kościoły gotyckie na Żuławach, PKZ 1976-1979, w zbiorach OT NID w Gdańsku, t. IV s. 9-16
• Schmid B., Bau-und Kunstdenkmaeler des Kreises Marienburg (Die Staedte Neuteich und Tiegenhof und die laedlichen Ortschaften), Danzig 1919, s. 142-151.
• Dehio-Handbuch der Kunstdenkmaeler West- und Ostpreussen, bearb. von M. Antoni, Muenchen-Berlin 1993., s. 364