The beauty of the Gothic polychromes created between the end of the 14th century and 1483 that fill the interior of the church is breathtaking. This makes the church in Małujowice the most valuable and beautiful building on the popular Polychrome Route of Brzeg.

History of the structure

The church was built in the 13th century. It can be assumed that the first founder of the church was Duke Henry III of Wrocław, and the construction planned on a grand scale was interrupted by the rebellion of the mighty in 1266 and the death of the Duke. According to the researchers’ findings, the chancel and the sacristy were built by 1266 - the traceries and the cross-ribbed vaulting with stone details come from this period. The nave was built between 1270 and 1290, and in the late Middle Ages a tower, a south porch and a portal in front of the main entrance to the church were erected. The final shape of the church was formed in the 15th century. In years 1309-1534, the church was owned by the Dominican Sisters of Wrocław. From 1534 to 1945 it was owned by the Evangelical community. In the years 1865-1870 extensive restoration work was carried out in the church under the supervision of the first Prussian heritage restorer Ferdinand von Quast. The main focus was on the reconstruction of the polychrome, but the work also concerned other elements of the furnishings, mainly the stone detail. Thus - most of the nave’s tracery was re-forged in granite, retaining its original form (with the exception of the bricked up window in the southern wall), the southern portal was also reconstructed, partly - the upper parts of the window-frames above the line of canopy lacings in the western portal. All the windows in the church were glazed with small round or hexagonal crown glass until 1870, some of which were donated to the Wroclaw museum. The stained glass windows in the chancel were designed by Ferdinand von Quast, and made by Schmidt of Brzeg.

Description of the structure

The church is located in the central part of the village, which has largely retained its traditional layout and buildings. It is a dominant feature of the landscape. It is surrounded by a 15th century stone wall with a partially damaged medieval penitential cross on the nave side.

The church is oriented, single-nave with a rectangular, lower chancel and a tower set over the western part of the nave. A small rectangular sacristy adjoins the chancel from the north, a portico is added to the nave from the west, and from the south - a one-storey porch on a square-shaped floor plan. The nave, chancel and porches of the church are covered with gable roofs, the sacristy - with a mono-pitched roof. The tower is crowned with a tall octagonal pyramid made of brick and covered with sheet metal. The church is built of bricks, on a stone foundation, in the monk and Gothic bonds (in the upper part of the tower and in the porches). The building is covered with sheet metal except for the sacristy which is covered with plain tile forming a lace pattern.

The interior walls of the church, from a height of about 2 meters above the floor to the ceiling, and partially - on the gable walls of the nave above the ceiling - are covered with Gothic polychromes, made from the end of the 14th century to about 1483 in three successive phases. The oldest fragments are the paintings preserved above the ceiling - made in the 4th quarter of the 14th century (1370-1380?) depicting the Adoration of the Three Kings and the Annunciation to the Shepherds (on the eastern gable) as well as Adam and Eve, the Creation of Eve, Original Sin, Expulsion from Paradise, God the Father with angels (?) (on the western gable). The figures are shaped using chiaroscuro, without the use of contour, and the representations lack depth. The paintings on the walls of the chancel were probably created in the first half of the 15th century and cover the entire surface of the walls. On the north wall are: the Tree of Jesse, the Adoration of the Infant, the Adoration of the Three Kings, and the Annunciation to the Shepherds; on the east wall, Mater Misericordiae and Christ Crucified by Virtue and the Two Prophets; on the south wall, the Assumption, the Presentation in the Temple, and the Twelve-Year-Old Jesus in the Temple; in the upper part, Elisha and Habakuk (?). The decoration of the nave was created before 1483 and includes scenes from the Old Testament (on the southern wall), the New Testament (on the northern wall) and a representation of the Last Judgement (on the eastern wall - the rainbow wall). The 95 representations in rectangular or closed semi-circular fields are arranged in five horizontal stripes on the south and north walls, and three in the choir area. The free space between the testament scenes is filled with floral ornamentation. Interestingly, in the Małujowice church about 640 ceiling boards are covered with floral, animal, geometric and heraldic patterns.

The church is rich in architectural detail, most of it stone. The most valuable is the representative western (main) portal from the beginning of the 14th century, made of horizontally laid sandstone blocks, closed with a sharp arch, with broadly splayed, finely profiled reveals with columns preceded by vertical strips of swirling rosettes and shells. In about two thirds of the height of the columns there are tracery canopies with floral decoration, two similar ones at the base of the tympanum filled with reliefs depicting the Coronation of the Mother of God, the Adoration of the Three Kings and the Visitation. Inside the church there are also some historical furnishings preserved, including: a Gothic font, a late Gothic tabernacle, a late Baroque high altar, a Renaissance pulpit, a choir gallery from 1717, and a patron’s pew from 1779.

Visitor access: the site is accessible to visitors

Author: Joanna Banik, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Opole, 29.05.2018

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