It boasts a preserved late-Gothic carpentry detail: the pointed-arched rood screen and two portals with ogee lintels.

History

The church was built in the years 1518-20 in place of an older one going back to the late 13th and early 14th century. Its founder was Stanisław Paczółtowski. The tower was added less than twenty years later and altered to its present shape in the 18th century. The temple was rebuilt in the years 1671-81. In the mid-18th century, a choir loft was installed. 1889 saw the construction of a sacristy and porch. In 1968, a wooden belfry was erected to the west of the church. It accommodated three bells, including one from 1535. The temple was renovated in 1821 and in the years 1990-1997.

Description

The Parish Church of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands among tall trees on a hill with a steep eastern slope (holding a graveyard), surrounded by a stone wall. It dominates the central part of the Paczółtowice village. The church is oriented, with a wooden log structure of fir wood (the tower is made of oak) in the late Gothic style. It is composed of a square body and a rectangular chancel, closed on three sides. Both sections are covered with a shared ceiling with enclosed upper logs, supported on profiled beams, and a steep, shingled, gable roof with a shared ridge. The roof has a Baroque turret with an ave bell spirelet with a lantern. A pole tower adjoins the nave from the west and a port from the south. The sacristy touches the chancel from the north.  The pole and frame tower has the shape of a square, with a porch in the ground level with slightly sloping walls. It is covered with a dome in the shape of a tent roof with a little spherical cupola. The walls of the nave, chancel, and tower are boarded vertically. The choir loft has a straight sill line and rests on two pillars. It is equipped with a Baroque organ screen and organs from the beginning of the 18th century. Inside, a pointed-arch rood screen and two ogee portals have been preserved since the construction of the temple. The 17th- and 18th-century interior décor boasts some Gothic elements, including panel images, such as Our Lady of the Apocalypse (in the main 1604 altar) and its side wings (originally forming a whole) with the images of St Barbara and St Catherine from around 1465-1470. Today, they are placed on both sides of the main altar; there is also a late Gothic crucifix from the beginning of the 16th century and a bronze Gothic and Renaissance baptismal font from 1533. Dębnik marble slabs and epitaphs from the 17th and 18th centuries are sunk in the stone wall surrounding the church premises.

The church can be viewed from the outside. During the summer season, the site is available inside from Thursday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., except for a short break between 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Sundays from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Author of the note Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 01/07/2014

Bibliography

• Chrzanowski T., Kornecki M., Sztuka Ziemi Krakowskiej, Kraków 1982
• Dyba O., Majka M., Zabytki architektury i budownictwa w Polsce. Vol. 18, part 2, Województwo krakowskie, Warszawa 1995
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. I, Województwo krakowskie, no. 4, Powiat chrzanowski, Warszawa 1953
• Kornecki M., Kościoły drewniane w Małopolsce, Kraków 1999
• Krasnowolski B., Leksykon zabytków architektury Małopolski, Warszawa 2013
• Kutaś P., Szlak architektury drewnianej w Małopolsce, Zakrzów 2014