The late-Baroque temple, with Gothic and Romanesque frameworks, conceals in its interior the works of renowned native artists, e.g.: Maciej Polejowski (the main altar 1764-65) and of the Bernardine monk Franciszek Lekszycki (altar paintings of St. Anthony of Padua and the Ecstasy of St. Francis of 1649). The crucifix from around 1420-25 and the “marble” epitaphs and tombstone from the 1630s-60s are not less valuable.

History

The Bernardine monastery complex is located in the oldest part of Opatów, known as Żmigród, which dates back to the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. The first wooden church was built by Casimir the Restorer in 1040, and its consecration took place in 1060. According to archaeological research, the brick temple was erected at the end of the 11th century or at the beginning of the 12th century. In 1144 it was expanded by Piotr Włostowic. In 1326, a parish was founded. In 1467 the then owner of the town - the Lubuski Bishop Krzysztof Fryderyk II and Fr Jan Mychowski gave the church to the Bernardines, which was accepted by the Order in 1469. This fact caused a dispute between the monks and the surrounding clergy, which ended in 1479. During the dispute, the Bishop of Krakow Jan Rzeszowski moved the parish and its furnishings to the Opatów collegiate church in 1471, and in 1472 issued the second foundation act for the monks. In the 1480s-90s, thanks to the support of the Opatów bourgeoisie and noblemen (mainly Jan Tarło), the monks built a new church and a strongly fortified monastery. Construction work was most probably managed by the monastic bricklayer Klemens Almanus (d. 1540), and the interior design of the church was made by his fellow woodcarver Benedict of Plzeň and painter Francis of Sieradz. In the years 1621-22, thanks to the efforts of the Jankowski family, the church was renovated and the chapels of St. Anne and St. Francis were added to it from the north. In 1655-57 and 1702, Swedish troops damaged the monastery buildings. In 1722, a major renovation of the whole complex started, carried out in several stages. During this time, in 1749, the chapels were demolished and in 1751-65, thanks to the efforts of Łukasz Krzyżanowski, the church was rebuilt. In 1764-65 Maciej Polejowski and his workshop made a new main altar. Then, in 1768-72, the monastery was renovated, in 1784, on the initiative of Felicjan Rychlewski, the interior of the church was covered with polychrome and paintings were placed in the six altars. During the January Uprising, the monks helped the insurgents, which is why in 1864 the Russian authorities dissolved the monastery. In 1897, the authorities handed the ruined church over to the local parish as a filial church, and in 1905 they also handed over the monastery buildings. In 1901-13 the church was renovated (in 1901 Zdzisław Lenatrowicz painted the polychromes). In 1939, the Sandomierz bishop Jan Kanty Lorek returned the complex to the Bernardines, who renovated it several times over the next half-century: in the years 1946-47, 1954-60 (demolition of the southern wing, discovery of the Roman apse) and in 1984-88. In 1989 a parish was founded at the church. In 2002-12, the church and its furnishings were thoroughly renovated, and a number of conservation and construction works were carried out on the monastery and the surrounding walls. 

Description

The Bernardine monastery complex is located in the inner part of a large polygonal plot of land on a hill in the northwestern part of Opatów. It consists of a Baroque church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (with Romanesque and late Gothic frameworks), a three-winged monastery, a former cemetery and a farm yard with buildings and an orchard, and the surrounding defensive wall. 

The unoriented aisleless temple consists of: a rectangular, one-span porch with a choir on the first floor, a four-span nave with shallow altar niches and a square, west-facing chancel with rounded corners. It was built of brick and a small amount of stone, and it was fully plastered. The church is covered with a gable roof with a steeple. Among its façades the following are distinguished: a two-storey, three-span façade with an avant-corps in the middle with rounded corners, crowned with a decorative gable with volutes, with Baroque figures of St. Anthony and Francis; both storeys are divided with pilasters and timbering. The interior of the temple has truncated corners and is partitioned by pairs of pilasters into spans. They are covered with vaults: Mannerist vaults on arches (in the nave and the chancel) and barrel vaults with lunettes (in the porch and above the choir gallery). The walls and vaults are decorated with polychrome from 1784, 1901 with Marian themes and ornamental motifs (trompe l’œil altars in the niches). Among the interior furnishings of the temple, the following are noteworthy: the winged main altar from the 1764-65 (designed and made by M. Polejowski) separating the monastic choir connected with the backs of the stalls, in which there is a “miraculous” painting of Our Lady of Consolation from the second half of the 17th century, a Rococo pulpit and a pipe organ casing, as well as painted altar settings with paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries (including St. Anthony of Padua and the Ecstasy of St. Francis of 1649, made by Fr. Lekszycki) and a Baroque sculpture of Christ at the altar from 1850.

The southern wall of the temple is adjacent to the remnants of the former monastery in the form of a rectangular, two-storey, three-tiered eastern wing and part of the western wing, connected by a one-storey cloister. They were made of brick and stone and fully plastered. The monastery is covered by a hipped roof (above the east and west wings) and a shed roof (above the south wing). The interiors of the wings are covered by vaults: barrel vaults with lunettes, double barrel vaults and brick infill ceilings (Klein’s ceilings). Among the furnishing, it is worth noting the valuable “marble” epitaphs and a tombstone from the 1630s - 1660s, (made by stonemasons from Chęciny and Dębnik) and a Gothic crucifix from about 1420-25.

The whole complex is surrounded by a defensive wall, in the southern and south-eastern parts of which there are buttresses and keystone embrasures and a Baroque gate on the axis of the church facade. 

The site is open to visitors. The interiors may be explored upon prior arrangement with the prior.

Łukasz Piotr Młynarski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kielce, 18.05.2016.

Bibliography

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