Designed and re-designed between the mid-16th and mid-18th century, it has survived without major changes to the present day. The homogeneous structure of the temple has all the features of Gothic wooden churches from Małopolska (plan, spatial arrangement, architectural detail). It is unique owing to its fragmented and vertically diversified body. The building is surrounded by arcades that seem to reduce the height of the body optically while extending the roof planes. There are only few such churches left, and the well-preserved Osieck temple stands out among them.

History

The parish in Osiek was established in the first quarter of the 14th century. The existing wooden church was built on the site of the previous one, probably in 1538-1549, on the initiative of the owner of the village, Seweryn Bonar. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the temple served as a Calvinist church. Between 1610 and 1617, a tower was added and between 1732, and in 1748 the complex was enclosed in arcades. Comprehensive renovation was carried out in the mid-17th and in the 18th century. In the mid-19th century, the brick sacristy from the first half of the 17th century was replaced with a wooden one; it received a formwork at the beginning of the 20th century. In 1907, due to the construction of a new brick parish church in Osiek, the temple was closed for worship. In the 1960s, the church was in an extremely poor condition. A thorough restoration of the building was carried out in the years 1970-1974 on the initiative of the regional conservator of monuments in Kraków, Dr Hanna Pieńkowska. The works covered the foundations, walls, ceilings, and roof truss; the shingled roofing was replaced; the arcades were dismantled and reconstructed; the fence was repaired, and the surroundings were tidied up. In the years 1972-1977, the scant interior paintings were exposed: the Renaissance ones (mid-16th century) and the eclectic ones (mid-19th century); some parts of them were removed. In the first half of the 1980s, the side altars, the epitaph of Beata and Mikołaj Porębski (which were borrowed in 1985 for a conservation exhibition in West Berlin) and the 1576 plaque honouring Samuel Betman were conserved. At the end of the 1990s, some of the equipment (including the main altar and the renovated pulpit) returned to the church from storage. Currently, the temple is a museum establishment.

Description

This oriented, late-Gothic church is located in the central part of the village in the area of Osiek Dolny. The temple has a wooden log structure of larch. It is covered with steep, shingled roofs. The ridge above the nave bears an ave bell turret. From the west, a slender tower with sloping walls and an extended top adjoins the church body. It is topped with a high, pyramid-shaped cupola. The walls are covered with formwork. The church has only a single nave. The sacristy touches the three-sided chancel. The temple is surrounded by open arcades. The chancel wall features a late-Gothic profiled portal with an ogee lintel. The original carpentry numbering has been preserved on the elements of the orchid-shaped roof truss.The interior is covered with ceilings with pieces of polychrome composed of figurative, geometric, and floral motifs representing different styles (including Renaissance decorations from the second half of the 16th century, Mannerist decorations from the second half of the 17th century, Rococo decoration from the second half of the 18th century and neo-Rococo ones from the second half of the 19th century). The most valuable historical items in the church are: a Rococo pulpit from the second half of the 18th century with a boat-shaped body, a Mannerist, three-level epitaph of Mikołaj and Beata Porębski from the 1630s, a late-Gothic baptismal font from the first half of the 16th century with the Fogelwerder coat of arms on the font and the lid in the shape of a classicist tabernacle from around 1800, a tombstone of Samuel Betman from 1576, a Mannerist side altar of St Charles Borromeo from 1645-1647 and a Rococo main altar from the second half of the 18th century with the statues of St John the Baptist and St Casimir. The church cemetery has several old, monumental oaks and some tombstones from the 18th and 19th centuries.

The site is accessible to the general public. The church interior can be toured by appointment with the guardian living nearby. The temple is located on the Wooden Architecture Route of Małopolska (WAR). It may also be available in the summer season to visitors sightseeing selected WAR sites.

Author of the note Tadeusz Śledzikowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 22-10-2014

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, vol. 1: Województwo krakowskie, no. 14: Powiat wadowicki, oprac. J. Szablowski, Warszawa 1953, p. 23.
• Brykowski R., Kornecki M., Kościoły drewniane w Małopolsce południowej, Wrocław 1984.
• Kornecki M., Kościoły drewniane w Małopolsce, Kraków 1999.
• Krasnowolski B, Leksykon zabytków architektury Małopolski, Warszawa 2013, pp. 225-226.
• Śledzikowski T., Zabytkowe cmentarze i mogiły w Polsce. Województwo bielsko-bialskie, Warszawa 1995.
• Małkowska-Holcerowa T., Późnogotycki dawny kościół parafialny pw. Św. Andrzeja Apostoła w Osieku. Dokumentacja naukowo-historyczna, Kraków 1990, Archiwum Oddziału Terenowego Narodowego Instytutu Dziedzictwa w Krakowie.
• Karta ewidencyjna, Osiek. Kościół pw. św. Andrzeja, oprac. Tadeusz Śledzikowski, Kraków 2002, Archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków w Krakowie.