History

The parish church of All Saints in Naramice was built approx. in 1520. The parish in Naramice existed already in the 15th century. The parish priest of Naramice is mentioned in documents of 1472 and 1476. Sources does not indicate an exact date of the consecration of the church. In the protocol from the inspection of 1706, the following was recorded: "A wooden church with a sacristy, side chapel, and steeple turret was consecrated". In 1765, there were 5 altars in the church; the main altar of All Saints and four side altars: of St Roch, St Anthony of Padua, Virgin Mary of Częstochowa, and Our Lady of Sorrows. The first renovation of the church was carried out by a local carpenter, Marcin Włodarczyk, in years 1770-72. Probably in that period, the western porch was added. Next renovation and conservation works were conducted in the early 19th century and in the 20th century.

Description

The church is situated in the central part of the village, in the middle of a cemetery surrounded by a wooden fence. The area is also circumscribed by a ring of trees. The church is an oriented, wooden structure classified to 16th-century churches of Wieluń type, Greater Poland variety. The late-Gothic building consists of a rectangular nave and a slightly narrower, elongated chancel terminated semi-hexagonally. Two rectangular sacristy rooms adjoin the chancel from the north. By the northern wall of the nave, there is a chapel built on a rectangular floor plan. Two porches adjoin the nave: from the south - a square one, and from the west, a later, 18th-century, rectangular porch preceded by a vestibule. In the articulated, accretive body of the church, the cuboid nave body covered with a gable roof is a dominant architectural feature, along with the chancel with a semi-hexagonal end section, covered by a multi-faceted roof which is extended from the south over the sacristy. In the roof ridge over the nave there is an octagonal steeple turret. The roofs over the chapel and the porch are of the three-pitched type. The western porch and the vestibule, which is lower than the porch, are covered by gable roofs. The church is a wooden log structure on a concrete foundation, covered with wood shingles, with weatherboards inside and outside. In the chancel, there is a false barrel vault on a segmental arch, and in other rooms - flat beamed ceilings. Façades are clad with vertical weatherboards and batten siding in abutting arrangement, partitioned only by rectangular window openings. The walls of the body, chancel, chapel, sacristy, and southern porch are topped with a pronounced cornice in the form of a lavishly profiled beam. From the east, the narrower chancel with false barrel vault, from the west - the porch separated from the nave by remains of the gable wall of the former church, and from the north - the chapel, open to the single-space nave covered by a ceiling. By the western wall of the nave, there is a choir. Between the nave and the chancel, there is a rood wall with the opening with an segmented arch in the top section, framed with a rood beam with a crucifix. The interior was plastered in the recent times. In the window of the sacristy, a decorative barbed grid has been preserved. Also the Baroque fittings of the church, comprised of a set of altars from the 2nd half of the 18th century, is worth attention. The main altar (1765), with gates, incorporates a Gothic painting of the Dormition of the Holy Mother, dated to approx. 1480.

The building is accessible all year round; interior tours upon prior arrangement with the parish administrator.

compiled by Elżbieta Cieślak, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Łódź, 15.12.2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, t. II województwo łódzkie z. 12, Powiat Wieluński, Warszawa 1953, s. 11.
• Katalog Kościołów i Duchowieństwa Diecezji Częstochowskiej Częstochowa 1978, s. 88-89.
• Katalog Archidiecezji Częstochowskiej 1993, Częstochowa 1993, s. 466.
• Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, pod red. T. Sulmierskiego, Warszawa 1881.
• Ryszard Rosin, Słownik historyczno-geograficzny ziemi wieluńskiej w średniowieczu, Warszawa 1963, s. 121.