The corbel frieze running under the eaves on the walls of the nave and the chancel is not found elsewhere in Poland, except for Cistercian buildings.

History

The church was probably erected in the first quarter of the 13th century; it was founded by knights. It was built, as indicated by the stonework, by a workshop working for the Cistercian Order in Małopolska. The parish and parson were first mentioned in sources in 1325-27. In the second half of the 15th century there was a provostry, under the patronage of the Jelitczyk family. The interior of the church was covered with polychrome in the first half of the 16th century. In 1676, the church was thoroughly extended with a nave, sacristy and St. Thomas’ chapel, and the old nave was transformed into a chancel, while the old chancel was turned into a storage room. In the 1730s-40s, the existing church furnishings were replaced with late Baroque furnishing. In the following decades, its technical condition deteriorated, and in 1774 the walls were reinforced with buttresses. The church was once again extended in 1821 with a northern porch and in 1837 a western porch was added. Further renovation works were carried out at the church in the years around 1870-73 (the roof was repaired and the steeple was erected at that time), and its furnishings were renewed. In 1945, as a result of warfare, the church was damaged, and in the same year a Renaissance polychrome was discovered in the storage room. These damages were removed and the necessary construction and conservation work was carried out in 1948-54. Further activities in this area were carried out in the years 1970-77, also in the Romanesque part of the church, architectural research and conservation works were carried out, during which painted Romanesque consecration crosses were found. In 2008, the main altar and paintings were restored. The last thorough construction and conservation work on the temple took place in 2009-10, when, among other things, the roof, roof sheathing and guttering were repaired, as well as the wooden structure of the ceilings and stairs of the front porch.

Description

The parish church, devoid of any distinctive stylistic features, is situated on a hill in the centre of Mokrsko Dolne. It is situated in the northern part of an irregular former cemetery, surrounded by a wall. The oriented one-nave temple has a separate Romanesque chancel (a former nave) and a low square storage room (a former chancel), close with a straight wall; a rectangular, low sacristy adjoins the chancel from the north. A two-storey porch was added to the nave body from the west, and from the north a rectangular: Chapel of the Lord Jesus (former St. Thomas) and a low porch. The body of the church was built of brick and stone (in the Romanesque parts opus emplectum), partly plastered and covered with buttresses. It is covered with gable roofs (above the nave with a steeple, the chancel, the chapel and the western porch), a shed roof (above the sacristy), three-pitched (above the northern porch). The modest façades of the temple are distinguished by the neo-Gothic western façade and the stone facades of the chancel and the storage room with Romanesque architectural accentuation, masonry marks from the first half of the 13th century and figures of Our Lady of Sorrows and Christ in the Ecce Homo type from 1676 (?) in the gables. The interior of the temple is covered with cross vaults (in the storage room), barrel vaults with lunettes (in the chancel on the arches, in the chapel, the sacristy) and wooden ceilings (in the porch). The entrance to the sacristy is accentuated by stone portals, from the side of the chancel - Baroque with a Romanesque tympanum (?), and from the interior - Romanesque from the 1st quarter of the 13th century. Romanesque elements have also been preserved in the chancel (the northern window and painted consecration crosses from the 1st quarter of the 13th century) and in the storage room (eastern window, two corner columns with relief capitals), in which fragments of Renaissance polychrome can also be seen. Among the modest interior furnishings of the church, the following are noteworthy: a late-Baroque pulpit and three altars from the 1730s-40s (the main altar, supposedly by Francesco Torriani, with a painting of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary from 1733 signed by Szymon Więckowski), the side altar from the 18th century with a crucifix from 2nd quarter of the 15th century, a limestone baptismal font from the beginning of the 17th century (undefined Pińczów workshop), neo-classical pipe organ casing from 1905, made by the Adolf Homan Church Organ Factory in Warsaw.

The monument is open to visitors. The interiors may be explored upon prior arrangement with the parish priest.

Łukasz Piotr Młynarski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kielce, 02.06.2015.

Bibliography

• Record sheet. Polichromia. Kościół par. p.w. Wniebowzięcia N.P.Marii, schowek za prezbiterium, ściany pn., wsch. i pd., prepared by B. Frey, A. Broda, J. Żmudziński, Krakow 1982, Archive of the Voivodeship Monuments Inspector in Kielce and Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw.
• Record sheet. Kościół parafialny p.w. Wniebowzięcia N.M.P w Mokrsku Dolnym, prepared by A. Adamczyk, Kielce 1997, Archive of the Voivodeship Monuments Inspector in Kielce and Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw.
• Adamczyk A., Modras J., Polanowski L., Prace przy zabytkach architektury sakralnej i zabudowie miejskiej, [in:] Prace konserwatorskie w woj. świętokrzyskim w latach 2001-2012, ed. J. Cedro, Kielce 2014, p. 32.
• Białoskórska K., Klasztory a zagadnienia kształtowania się lokalnych polskich środowisk i tradycji artystycznej w XIII stuleciu, [in:] Klasztor w społeczeństwie średniowiecznym i nowożytnym. Materials from the international scientific conference organised in Turawa on 8 — 11 May 1996 by the Institute of History of the University of Opole and the Institute of History of the University of Wrocław, d. M. Derwich, A. Pobóg-Lenartowicz, Opole-Wrocław 1996, pp. 311-346.
• Gadowski J., Znaki kamieniarskie w Polsce od roku 1100 do połowy XIII wieku, “Folia Historiae Atrium” 1966, vol. III, pp. 23-67.
• Karpowicz M., Artisti Ticinesi in Polonia nella prima meta del'700, Bellinzona 1999, pp. 30-31.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. II: Województwo kieleckie, J. Z. Łoziński, B. Wolff (eds.), vol. 3: Powiat Jędrzejowski, prepared by T. Przypkowski, Warsaw 1957, pp. 24-25.
• Kubica E., Katalog zabytków wczesnośredniowiecznej architektury monumentalnej Małopolski, Rusi i Wołynia, “Materiały i Sprawozdania Rzeszowskiego Ośrodka Archeologicznego”, vol. XVII 1996, pp. 155-6.
• Marconi B., Malowidła ścienne w kościele w Mokrsku Dolnym, woj. kieleckie “Ochrona Zabytków” 1952, no. 1, pp. 66-67.
• Rosiński P., Zabytkowe organy w województwie kielecki, Warszawa-Kraków 1992.
• Sztuka polska przedromańska i romańska o schyłku XIII wieku, ed. M. Walicki, vol. 2: Katalog i bibliografia zabytków, prepared by M. Pietrusińska, Warsaw 1971, p. 736.
• Świechowski Z., Katalog architektury romańskiej w Polsce, Warsaw 2009, pp. 314-318.
• Wiśniewski J., Historyczny opis kościołów, miast, zabytków i pamiątek w jędrzejowskiem, Marjówka 1930, pp. 294-297.
• Wojtasik Z., Zub J., Konserwacja tzw. zabytków ruchomych, [in:] Prace konserwatorskie w woj. świętokrzyskim w latach 2001-2012, ed. J. Cedro, Kielce 2014, pp. 129-130.