The brick chapel of St. Leonard is presumed to have been built around 1140. Funds for its construction were provided by Piotr Włostowic. This great magnate is presumed to have provided funding for as many as 77 stone temples, including the one in Pajęczno. However, researchers have long been arguing about their exact number.

History

The parish existed in the town at least from 1251. For a long time, it was the property of the collegiate church of St. Florian in Krakow and lecturers of the Jagiellonian University served as parish priests in Pajęczno. At the beginning of the 18th century, Pajęczno was donated to the Jasna Góra Monastery. Until 1748, there was a wooden church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Pajęczno, built next to Dunin’s (?) Chapel of St. Leonard. The wooden church and the chapel shared the same roof. At the request of the parish priest, Franciszek Dziurkiewicz, both buildings were pulled down and the construction of a new temple was started on their site. It was completed in 1753.

The names of the builders are known: bricklayers Grzegorz Eliasz and Franciszek Leskowski, carpenters Jan Krynborg and Ignacy Griger and woodcarvers Wojciech Szczepocki and Szymon Jackiewicz. The new temple soon became a Marian sanctuary with the painting of the Virgin Mary of Pajęczno, which became famous for its miraculous powers, attracting many pilgrims.

In 1810, a large fire swept through the town of Pajęczno, affecting the temple too. The painstaking reconstruction lasted until 1823. During the Second World War, the occupiers stole valuable items of the fixtures and fittings and turned the building into a provisional camp, then into a grain warehouse and a carpentry shop. Since the war, the church has been renovated several times. As a result of one of them, the white marble tombstone of A. Sławiankowski was relocated to the area of the former church cemetery. It was originally situated in the church porch.

Description

The church is situated in the centre of Pajęczno and is surrounded by a park. It is oriented. It represents the style of classicizing Baroque. The church was built on an irregular plan of interconnected rectangles.

It is a single-storey building with a compact body, covered with gable roofs. The highest part is a four-storey tower positioned on the extension of the nave, containing the porch. It is topped with a cupola with a lantern. From the north, the nave is adjoined by the chapel of St. Leonard. The narrower chancel is adjoined by the sacristy.

The temple was built from solid bricks laid with lime mortar, plastered on both sides. The roof truss is of the rafter and collar type. The church has brick barrel vaults. The roofs are clad with galvanized sheet metal.

The western elevation serves as the façade, with the tower as the furthest protruding element. Its four storeys are separated by cornices. In the side walls of the tower, there are entrances to the church. In the walls of each storey, there are window openings with a semicircular top. In the ground level storey, there is a blende and a recess. Two window openings are placed symmetrically in the walls of the nave, which are set back. The corners are flanked by flat pilaster strips (on all elevations). The northern elevation has the largest number of divisions, because it is adjoined by the walls of the nave wall and the chancel, the latter being narrower than the nave. The elevation has few window and door openings and its walls are smoothly plastered. The eastern elevation is asymmetrical because it comprises the walls of the chancel, which terminates with a straight wall, and of the sacristy. The chancel is topped with a triangular gable with an oval window. The southern elevation has two window openings in the nave part and one in the recessed part of the chancel wall. All elevations are set on a low plinth and are adorned with crowning cornices.

The nave of the church consists of two bays. On the west side, there is a music choir with a curved central part based on wooden pillars. The vaults of the nave are supported by pilaster strips. The entrance to the Chapel of St. Leonard was designed as a large arcade opening. The window openings of the nave and of the chancel have stucco decorations in splayed window reveals.

The most valuable item of the interior decoration is the painting of the Virgin Mary of Pajęczno. The painting cannot be dated precisely, because it has never been researched. In most sources, it is dated to the 16th century, although some sources mention the 13th century and describe it as the painting brought to Pajęczno by the archbishop of Gniezno, Fulk. The silver robe decorating the painting comes from the 16th century. As early as the 17th century, the painting was considered to have miraculous powers, because many people were cured after praying before the painting or were released from captivity, etc.

In 2005, the painting was crowned with papal crowns.

It is placed in the main altar from 1783. The side altars come from that period too. Other fixtures and fitting were produced in the 19th and 20th centuries. The walls and vaults are covered with paintings made in the 20th century.

The church can be viewed from outside all year round. It can be toured inside before or after church services or upon prior arrangement with the parish priest.

Prepared by Anna Michalska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź. 24 February 2017

Bibliography

• Archidiecezja Częstochowska, katalog 2005, Częstochowa 2006
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, Warszawa 1954, vol. II, woj. łódzkie
• Kazimierza Stronczyńskiego opisy i widoki zabytków w królestwie polskim, Warszawa 2011, vol. III gubernia warszawska
• Konikowski M., Pajęczno i okolice, Łódź 1935
• Pach J., K., Pajęczno przez wieki, Częstochowa 2002
• Pogorzelski W., 43 lata w kapłaństwie, Sieradz 1935
• Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Warszawa 1888, vol. VII