History

The parish was founded in connection with the establishment of the village after 1289. The construction of the church began c. 1300 and ended in the first half of the 14th century. During the wars against Sweden, the church sustained substantial damage. It was renovated in 1908; it was then that the brick tower spire was replaced with a tented roof clad with ceramic tiles.  

Description

The church is situated on a small hill in the eastern part of the village. The land around the church and the graveyard is enclosed with a stone wall. The Gothic church is oriented towards the east, has a three-bay body with a tower on a rectangular floor plan to the east, which takes the form of an octagon at the level of peripheral walls. The chancel features a rectangular end section, attached to the northern wall is the former sacristy, which is currently a porch, and attached to the southern wall is the new sacristy, which was added in the 19th century. The main body and the chancel are covered with separate gable roofs while the former sacristy and the new sacristy are covered with shed roofs. The tower was originally topped with a brick spire, which was replaced with a tall roof clad with ceramic tiles in 1908. The nave and the lower parts of the walls of the chancel and the tower are made of field stone while the remaining parts are made of brick with the use of overburnt brick. The pointed-arch window openings are splayed on both sides. The church is flanked with buttresses on the outside – which are single-stepped by the chancel. The walls of the chancel are crowned with an arcaded frieze with tracery constructed using hand-made brick. The east façade with a triangular gable is flanked with pinnacles, with a large, partially bricked-up window on the axis embedded into the area of the gable; on its sides, there are two pointed-arch blind windows, with a circular blind window above. The tower is flanked with two low buttresses in the front and on its ground floor level, there is a pointed-arch portal with two steps, above which there is a blind window with the same design. It takes the form of an octagon at the level of the peripheral walls of the body. The octagonal part is partitioned by a plastered band frieze, with pointed-arch blind windows; the blind windows in the topmost storey have newer identical window openings. The church interior is covered with a false barrel vault (17th century), the former sacristy with a barrel vault with lunettes and the ceiling of the tower is flat. The oldest surviving item in the church is the Late Gothic sculpture of God the Father from 1508. The main altarpiece and the left side altarpiece date back to c. 1700; the right side altarpiece dates back to circa mid-19th century and features a Rococo antependium from the late 18th century. There is also a procession float depicting St Roch from the early 18th century,

as well as a Rococo baptismal font from the second half of the 18th century. The pulpit, the confessionals, the crucifix and sculptures of the Risen Christ, Joseph and Our Lady of Sorrows date back to the late 18th century. The pipe organ has a case frame in the Gothic Revival style constructed in 1902 by Orgelbauanstalt A. Terletzki, Inh., Ed. Wittek, Elbing. The bell was cast in Toruń in 1768 by Mikołaj Petersilge. Inside the church, there are also the tombstones of Konstancja Bagniewska (d. 1784) and Władysław Działowski (1858).

The site is accessible to visitors during the opening hours of the church and by prior arrangement with the parish priest.

Prepared by Marzenna Stocka, National Heritage Board of Poland, Regional Branch in Toruń, 16-10-2017

Bibliography

• Diecezja toruńska. Historia i teraźniejszość, Stanisław Kardasz (ed.), Vol. 18, Dekanat wąbrzeski, Toruń 1994, pp. 40-44
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Vol. XI: Województwo bydgoskie, issue 19: Powiat wąbrzeski, T. Chrzanowski and M. Kornecki (eds.), Warszawa 1967, pp. 13-15