History

Built in 1709 as one of the so-called Churches of Grace, erected under a special Imperial authorisation following the Treaty of Altranstädt. In 1788-89, a tower was added to the existing church, with subsequent renovation works taking place in years 1909-10, 1963-73 and 1984. From 1946 onwards, the building has served as a Roman Catholic church.

Description

Erected outside the erstwhile town limits, the church is a timber-framed structure with brick infills, oriented towards the east. It is designed on a Greek cross floor plan, with both the chancel and the arms of the cruciform structure featuring semi-hexagonal end sections. A bell tower designed on a square floor plan, topped with a bulbous cupola with an open roof lantern, is located in the western part of the church. The church is covered with a multi-pitched roof with dormer windows. The interior features a flat ceiling adorned with decorative framing, resting on arched supports which are structurally connected to the multi-storey galleries below. The three-storey galleries follow the course of the walls. To ascend to these galleries, one must use the staircases located inside the annexes positioned on the diagonals of the arms of the Greek cross-shaped structure. Most of the interior fixtures and fittings originate from the 1970s. The church still features a Baroque Revival pipe organ casing and the pipe organ itself, made in 1887 by the Wilhelm Sauer company. The Late Baroque pulpit and baptismal font dating back to 1720 were both relocated to the Poznań cathedral in 1955.

An ensemble of buildings of the former Evangelical parish is located west of the church itself. These buildings - initially designed as wattle-and-daub structures - include the rectory (ca. 1790, destroyed by fire in 1980 and then reconstructed as a brick structure), the parish school (1857, replacing an earlier building) as well as the now-defunct hospital which was demolished in 1986.

The church can only be viewed from the outside, with the interiors being open to visitors during church service. For more information, please visit the archdiocese website: http://www.archidiecezja.wroc.pl

compiled by Grzegorz Grajewski, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wrocław, 21-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce. Seria Nowa, vol. IV, issue 3. Województwo wrocławskie, J. Pokora and M. Zlat (eds.). Milicz, Żmigród, Twardogóra i okolice, original compilation by J. Wrabec. Warsaw 1997, pp. 50-52.
• Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Warsaw 2006, p. 567.
• Pilch J., Leksykon zabytków architektury Dolnego Śląska. Warsaw 2005, p. 231.