The bell tower accompanying the parish church of St Stanislaus - Zabytek.pl
Address
Milejczyce, Kościelna 1
Location
woj. podlaskie, pow. siemiatycki, gm. Milejczyce
The wooden bell tower, along with the neighbouring wooden, Baroque church erected during the same period, forms a picturesque and valuable complex of wooden ecclesiastical buildings.
History
The first wooden church in Milejczyce was founded by king Sigismund the Old in 1529. The existing church was erected in the years 1740-1744. It was also during that period, i.e. somewhere around the year 1740, that the existing bell tower was built. Following the wave of persecution which swept across the land in the wake of the thwarted January Uprising, the bell tower and the church were taken over by the Orthodox community. In 1917, both buildings were reclaimed by the Catholics. A comprehensive restoration was performed in 1929; despite the fact that all that remained of the original construction materials were the corner posts, the entire renovation process did not detrimentally affect the historical nature of the building.
Description
The bell tower is located in the church cemetery located in the south-eastern part of the village, on the northern side of Kościelna street. The bell tower itself is located in the south-western part of the cemetery. Designed on a square floor plan, it is a two-storey structure with a tented roof surmounted by an iron cross. It is a wooden building designed around a post-and-frame structure, positioned on stone foundations bound with cement mortar. The roof is covered with wood shingles. The façades are covered with vertically arranged board and batten siding and divided into two sections by horizontal drip boards. On the eastern side of the building there is a pair of single-leaf doors, above which rises a small, rectangular opening. At the second-storey level, each of the four walls of the tower features rectangular bell openings topped with pointed arches and filled with horizontal louvres.
The site is open to visitors.
compiled by Grzegorz Ryżewski, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Białystok, 07-11-2014.
Bibliography
- Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. XII, Województwo białostockie, issue 1, Siemiatycze, Drohiczyn i okolice, compiled by Kałamajska-Saeed M., Warsaw 1996, p. 40.
- Diecezja Drohiczyńska. Spis parafii i duchowieństwa 2004, compiled by Rostkowski Z., Drohiczyn 2004, p. 386.
- http://www.drohiczynska.pl/?action=parafia&id=48
- Record sheet, Milejczyce. Dzwonnica przy kościele parafialnym pw. św. Stanisława Biskupa, prepared by Tomecka B., 1979, Archive of the Regional Monuments Protection Office in Białystok.
Category: belfry
Architecture: nieznana
Building material:
wood
Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records
Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_20_BL.16775, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_20_BL.19697