Erected with the participation of Fr. Jan Wojsławski, builder of several late Gothic churches in these areas. It is a treasury of sepulchral art, including the only Renaissance tombstones in the province. It also has valuable interior furnishing from the 16th to 18th centuries.

History of the object

Construction of the church began in 1504 on the initiative of Anna, Duchess of Mazovia, wife of Konrad III, and it was continued by her sons Stanisław and Janusz, from 1519 under the supervision of the parish priest Jan Wojsławski. Completed in 1526, a year earlier, consecration and transfer of services from the older church, the so-called Rozesłańców (Messengers) church. In the years 1691-1692, the church was reshaped in a Baroque style according to the design of Simone Giuseppe Belotti, which consisted in the reconstruction of two gables over the nave from the east and west, raising the walls of the chancel and lowering the roofs. In 1819, the church was closed due to its poor condition, but it was reopened after basic renovations. In 1884, the southern sacristy was built on and the entrance to the belfry was walled up. In 1925, the church was elevated to the rank of a cathedral. In years 1932-1934, the reconstruction was carried out under the supervision of arch. Stefan Cybichowski. A second storey was added above the southern sacristy  and the tombstones were transfered from the chancel and the Rosary chapel to the aisles. In 1939, a bomb damaged the southern part of the sacristy and part of an aisle. Renovation works were carried out in 1940 and 1947, and in 1953-1958, when the temple was partially changed in a Gothic style according to the design of Władysław Paszkowski.

Description of the structure

The church is located in the middle of the town, within the church cemetery. The building is oriented. Late-Gothic.

A three-aisles pseudo-basilica. A five-span aisles body connected with a two-span chancel closed on three sides, of the width of the nave. The chancel is connected from the north with a two-story sacristy, originally housing a collector's box on the first floor, and with a two-story, stylless sacristy from the south. A three-storey belfry with a chapel (former church-porch) in the ground floor was added to the northern elevation of the side aisle. Adjacent to the southern aisle is the Rosary Chapel (originally the tomb chapel of Modliszewski family). The nave and the belfry are covered with gable roofs; the chancel with a five-sided hip roof, side aisles, chapel and sacristies with a mono-pitched roof A small ridge turret over the chancel arch.

Made of bricks, unplastered elevations (except for gables, bricked-up windows and friezes), decorated with burr bricks arranged in diamond-shaped and checkerboard patterns. The roofs are covered with roof tiles.

The elevations are clasped with stepped buttresses, the most prominent on the facade and at the corners of the belfry. The window openings are widened, surrounded by plastered blinds, mostly rectangular in shape with a pointed arch, but also round, rectangular and headed with a semicircular arch. Portals with archivolts with sharp pointed arches. Blind windows with semicircular and double arches, plastered. The façade is topped with a baroque gable with a pediment framed by volutes, divided by Tuscan pilasters. Side elevations of the aisles are framed with a profiled crowning cornice; between the windows an indented strip of plastered brickwork. The elevations of the chancel are raised by a baroque frieze with double pilasters at the corners. The elevations of the belfry are divided by indented stripes into three storeys. In the second and third storeys, rows of arcaded blind windows with gothic arches (intersecting in the second storey). From north and south gables: southern stepped, with pinnacles; southern mannerist, with a wavy pattern, plastered, decorated with blind windows. The interior is divided into three aisles with rows of arcades with gothic arches on four-sided pillars decorated with stepped pilaster strips. The stellar-net vaults with brick ribs (the nave, chancel, chapel in the belfry), stellar (in the western bay of the southern aisle) and crystal vaults (side aisles and the Rosary chapel). A baroque music choir in the form of a balcony supported by three pillars.

Furnishing: mannerist (17th century) and baroque (18th century) altarpieces, baptismal font and pulpit. Very valuable tombstones: a late Gothic plate dedicated to Fr. Jan Wojsławski from the mid-16th century, Renaissance wall tombstones - three families: Modliszewski (end of the 16th century), Mikołaj Troszyński (end of the 16th century) and Nikodem Kossakowski (with early Baroque elements, 1611).

Visitor access: The cathedral is open to visitors.

Author of the note: Aneta Kułak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Białystok, 7 November 2014

Bibliography

• Galicka I., Kałamajska-Saeed M., Sygietyńska H., Sztuka dawnych ziem łomżyńskiej i wiskiej w XVI-XIX w., “Studia Łomżyńskie”, vol. I, pp. 110-136.
• Jemielity W., Katedra łomżyńska, Łomża 1989.
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, vol. IX. Województwo łomżyńskie, fol. 2: Ciechanowiec, Zambrów, Wysokie Mazowieckie i okolice, compiled by Kałamajska-Saeed M., Warsaw 1986, pp. 18-29.
• Kunkel R., Architektura gotycka na Mazowszu, Warsaw 2006, pp. 259-262.