History

The church in Piekary was mentioned as a parish church for the first time in 1347, when the patronage over the temple was taken over by the Benedictine convent in Strzegom. From the mid-16th century to 1654, it was an Evangelical filial church with a parish in Konary. Following recatholisation, in 1666, it began to serve as a parish church; then, between 1810 and 1825, its status was reversed to that of a filial church, subordinate to the parish in Jaroszów. The parish in Piekary was revived in 1900. The original, medieval church suffered serious damage during a fire in 1719. It was rebuilt in 1723 in the Baroque style, probably using the remains of the previous structure. The tower was reconstructed in 1829; two bells, from 1522 and 1557, were hung inside. The church underwent restoration works in the 2nd half of the 19th century and in 1929 — it was probably then that two annexes were built by the tower, of which the southern one contained a staircase. The church was renovated in 1962 (roof repair and painting), in the years 1967-1968, and in 1973.

Description

The building, situated in the central part of the village, is surrounded by a graveyard enclosed with a stone wall, established in the 15th century. The oriented church, made of brick and stone (tower) and plastered, set on a rectangular floor plan, has a single nave and a chancel terminating in a semi-hexagon on the outside and hemispherically inside. There is a small sacristy on the north side of the chancel. The three-bay nave is adjoined by a rusticated tower on a square floor plan, with a porch at the ground floor level. The tower is framed by cornices and a simplified, corbelled crowning cornice. There are two annexes by the tower; in one of them, there are stairs leading to music gallery. The façades of nave, chancel, and sacristy have cornices at the top; on the southern façade, there are two dates: “1929” and “1973”. The nave and the chancel are covered with a ceramic gable roof, passing into a three-pitched roof above the chancel. The sacristy and the annexes have mono-pitched roofs. The low hip roof of the tower is covered with sheet metal. The aisleless interior is covered with a barrel vault with lunettes on arches, which pass into Tuscan pilasters adjoining the walls. There are Neo-Baroque wall paintings on the chancel and nave walls. The main altar is Late Baroque in character (early 18th century), the side altars are Neo-Gothic (late 19th centoru and early 20th century), the pulpit is Baroque (mid-18th century), the pipe organ casing is Neoclassical (19th century), and the baptismal font — Gothic (1492). At the graveyard, there is a Baroque sculpture of Saint John Nepomucene from the 18th century.

The historic monument is open to visitors.

compiled by Beata Sebzda, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wroclaw, 18-08-2014

Bibliography

• Brzezicki S., Nielsen Ch., Grajewski G., Popp D. (red.), Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Warszawa 2006, s. 675
• Kołaczkiewicz E. (red.), Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce. Seria Nowa, t. 4: Województwo wrocławskie (dolnośląskie), z. 5: Powiat Środa Śląska, Warszawa 2014, s. 233-237.
• Oszczanowska B., Sebzda B., Trenkler D., Studium wartości kulturowych gminy Udanin, powiat średzki, województwo dolnośląskie, Wrocław 2011, s. 113-114, 116-117 [mps w archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków we Wrocławiu].
• Pilch J., Leksykon zabytków architektury Dolnego Śląska, Warszawa 2005, s. 264.
• Staffa M. (red.), Słownik geografii turystycznej Sudetów, t. 19: Wzgórza Strzegomskie, Wrocław 2004, s. 188-189.