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Orawka - the church of St John the Baptist - Zabytek.pl

Orawka - the church of St John the Baptist

Orawka - the church of St John the Baptist

History monuments Orawka

Address
Orawka

Location
woj. małopolskie, pow. nowotarski, gm. Jabłonka

The church in Orawka - the oldest Catholic church and the only preserved wooden church in the Polish part of the Upper Orawa, stands out as a bearer of special value for the Polish cultural heritage.

The parish in Orawka played a crucial role in maintaining the national and religious identity of Polish settlers and their descendants in the times when the region did not belong to Poland. 

The church distinguishes itself through high artistic class and authenticity of both the architecture and virtually complete and unaltered lavish décor and fixtures and fittings in the interior. Not only the wall paintings, altars, pulpit or organ have survived, but also such elements as the stone floor or wooden, polychromed benches and doors. Lenten veils, still in use, serving the purpose of covering the altars during the Lent, are characterised by high value. 

The church, together with an extensive ideological programme of wall paintings, fixtures and fittings, represents an invaluable source of knowledge about the history and culture of Polish settlers inhabiting the region and illustrates the mutual penetration of influences and traditions in the borderland. Symbolic significance is attributed to a series of wall paintings depicting scenes from the life of St John the Baptist, as they refer to the pioneering activity of Polish missionaries in the Upper Orawa, fighting for religious freedom and improvement of the situation of persecuted Catholics, as well as the role of Orawka as the awaited place where Catholic baptisms would be conducted. The scene depicting repentant St Mary Magdalene is there to serve as a warning and a call for conversion and repentance for people who renounced the Catholic beliefs of their ancestors. A group of sculptures in the main altar, presenting patrons of Poland and Hungary, on the one hand presents the attachment to the fatherland, while on the other, ties with the country within the boundaries of which the Catholics of Orawa lived. The scenes from the Decalogue, depicting figures in traditional folk garments of Orawa, interior decor or traditional tools make up a valuable material for ethnographic research. 

History

Orawa is a historical region that initially belonged to Poland, while later - from the medieval times to 1918 - represented a borderland county of Hungary (which acquired the majority of the Orawa region most likely at the turn of the 12th century and conquered its north-eastern part in the 16th century). In the second half of the 16th century as well as in the early 17th century Polish settlers from Żywiec, Sucha Beskidzka, and Podhale regions appeared in the Upper Orawa. The village of Orawka, located in the Upper Orawa, was chartered according to the Wallachian law in 1585, five years after the first settlers came to the region. 

Polish settlers in Orawa were Catholics, while the Hungarian dynasties of Thurzon, followed by Thököly, were Protestants, which led to repressions towards peasants wishing to retain their faith. The situation of Catholics improved around mid-17th century. A significant role in this regard was played by Polish priests from the diocese of Cracow, especially rev. Jan Sczechowicz, owing to whom the first Catholic church in the Upper Orawa was erected in Orawka, and who was entrusted with the primate of Hungary to rebuild the Catholic church structures within the county. Actions aimed at preserving the Catholic faith in the region garnered support of the Roman Emperor, Hungarian king Ferdinand III, who strived to weaken the position of the Protestant dynasty of Thököly. The Emperor mentored the activity of rev. Sczechowicz and his cooperators and in 1655 he nobilitated the priest. The Catholic Church was a bearer of the national identity in the region. At first, the priests celebrated masses in Polish, there were books in Polish in parish libraries, while Polish and Latin were taught in schools. Inscriptions located in the interiors of temples were a material proof of using the Polish language. In the church in Orawka, the lyrics of the four-verse passion chant were placed on the rood beam (the inscription was covered with formwork probably around the late 18th century, when Orawka fell under the diocese of Spisz, Polish priests were driven away, and masses began to be celebrated in Slovakian and Hungarian; the inscription was uncovered in the 1990s).

Orawka was a centre of the Catholic faith in the region. A wide-ranging activity of the parish, whose first parish priest was rev. Sczechowicz, included running a shelter for the elderly, disabled and lonely, a school, and a missionary house for Catholic missionaries and priests working in the Upper Orawa. 

After World War I, the dispute between Poland and Czechoslovakia about parts of the borderland was to be settled by a plebiscite, which however was not conducted. In 1920, by decision of the Council of Ambassadors, the disputed land in Orawa was divided between the two countries. Several villages from the Trzcianka poviat (including Orawka) were connected to Poland. After the outbreak of World War II, Slovakia acting in league with Germany, annexed the Polish part of Orawa. After the war the land returned to Poland. 

***

The construction of the church in Orawka began around 1650. In 1651 a portable missionary altar was consecrated, owing to which masses could be celebrated already in the construction period. Before the first visitation in 1656 a belfry had been erected (possibly a free-standing one), while the nave and the chancel had not been completed. The construction of the temple was finished in 1659 and the church was consecrated in 1715. In 1728 a brick chapel of Our Lady of Sorrows was added to the eastern wall of the chancel. 

Renovation and conservation works in the church took place in the years 1816-1829 (among others, replacement of the roof cover of the church), 1901 (according to various sources, a new tower was erected, or the existing one was moved and partially incorporated into the body; the tower’s Baroque cupola was replaced with the one modelled on the Gothic stylistic principles), 1926-1927 (covering the chapel with a dome), 1934-1935 (covering the church and the chapel with a shared roof, construction of a new ridge turret).

Description 

The church is located in the centre of the Orawka village. The entire church area is separated by a wall made of broken stones. The area - apart from the temple - includes a graveyard with gravestones of local priests (19th-20th century) and two Polish pilots who died in 1939, as well as a group of sculptures presenting the saints and a figure of the Virgin Mary with Child set on a column (mid- 18th century, workshop from Biały Potok). 

The church was built of larch wood on a stone foundation. The church is oriented towards the east and consists of a rectangular nave with a porch from the south, a narrower chancel terminating in a semi-hexagon with a sacristy adjoining it from the north, and a tower from the west. From the east, a brick-built chapel, terminating in a semi-hexagon adjoins the chancel. The temple was built of logs, while the tower rests on pillars. The walls of the church and the tower are clad with wood shingles, the starling that crowns the tower is covered with vertical weatherboards and topped with a pyramidal cupola with four turrets at the corners. A ridge turret towers above the roof clad with wood shingles, shared by the church and the chapel. 

The interiors of the nave and the chancel are covered with flat wooden ceilings, while the nave features encased upper logs resting on pillars. The interior of the chapel is topped with barrel vaults with lunettes. The opening of the rood arch terminates in a segmental arch, while an organ gallery is located opposite the rood arch, at the western and partially at the northern walls. The sandstone floor incorporates gravestones of priests buried in the temple, among others, rev. Jan Sczechowicz (who died in 1659; a gravestone includes an inscription added in 1989).

The interior of the church is lavishly polychromed. The painted decorations, dating back to the second half of the 17th century and the early 18th century (some of them perhaps from the early 19th century) depict, among others, the life of the church’s patron, the repenting Mary Magdalene, images of 53 saints and blessed worshipped in Hungary, scenes illustrating the Decalogue, angels playing musical instruments, representations of hell and purgatory, imperial, bishopial, and noble coats of arms, as well as numerous ornaments and other decorative motifs. 

Fixtures and fittings of the church include, among others, sumptuously decorated Late Baroque altarpieces from the late 17th century or the early 18th century - the main altar with the Baroque sculpted pieta and images of St Adalbert and St Stanislaus (patrons of Poland) as well as St Stephen and St Ladislaus (Hungarian kings, patrons of that country), and to side altars; a Baroque pulpit; a Baroque organ from the 1670s with preserved original bellows; a Baroque group of sculptures on the rood beam, presenting the Crucifixion (after mid- 17th century); a Gothic sculpture of the Sorrowful Christ (second part of the 15th century, workshop from Silesia (?)), Lental veils (one from 1676 showing pieta against the cross, surrounded by angels with tools of the Passion of Christ, as well as three from the early 19th century); a stone baptismal font (18th century (?), workshop from Biały Potok); polychromed benches and choir stalls; a confessional from the first half of the 19th century. 

The chapel is equipped, among others, with an altar from around 1728 as well as Stations of the Cross and confessionals from the 19th century.

Moreover, a bell from 1652, donated by king Ferdinand IV, has survived (it was one of three bells donated to Orawka by the Habsburg dynasty - emperor Ferdinand III and king Ferdinand IV).

Objects data updated by Jacek Daczyński.

Category: masterpiece of architecture and engineering

Building material:  wood

Protection: Historical Monument

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_12_PH.15738