History

The first church in Pieniężnica was built in the first half of the 17th century (after 1624). According to the inspection in 1653, the church was owned by Protestants. In the mid- 18th century, it was used by Catholics and maintained by the owners of the nearby Grabowo village, the Grabowski family. Until 1864, the church was a filial church of the parish in Koczała, and next, until the present day, it has been a filial church of the parish in Brzezie. The existing church was built in 1814.

Description

The church is located in the north-western part of the village, within the village green, on the western side of a village road. It is oriented. The church plot is situated in the second building line. It has a short separate access road. In the first building line, in the immediate vicinity of the church (from the west), there is a homestead and a school. On other sides, the plot is surrounded by fields and meadows of the village green. The churchyard was originally used as a graveyard (no gravestones have been preserved to this day). The area is surrounded by a mesh fence. Within the area, there are single old-growth trees, which are the remains of the border plants.

The body of the church is a half-timbered structure with brick infills, and is covered with plaster. The tower features a post-and-beam structure covered with weatherboards. The building was erected on a rectangular floor plan. It features a single-space layout and has an octagonally closed presbytery. A sacristy abuts the chancel from the north. The sacristy is polygonal in shape and is similar in form to the chancel. On the southern façade, there is a porch built on a square floor plan. The church is cuboidal in shape. Its western section features a tower (embedded in the nave). The nave is covered with a gable roof, while the presbytery features a roof consisting of five sections. The sacristy is covered with a shed roof that slopes down from the plane of the presbytery roof. The porch is covered with a gable roof. The tower is crowned with a Baroque bulbous cupola. The main entrance to the church is located in the western façade, and the side entrance is located in the porch of the southern façade. The window openings are rectangular. The façades are not adorned with any architectural detail; the clearly apparent structure of the building featuring a checkerboard arrangement of posts and beams and the colours of wood contrasted with plastered infills serve as a decoration.

The interior features a wooden ceiling, with counter-ceilings made of wooden boards, and a crown moulding, covered in wall paintings from the 1920s (an acanthus twig with characteristic Regency wall motifs). Most of the historical fittings date back to the 18th century and were moved from an older church: a Rococo pulpit, gallery and pews from the 18th century, a Late Baroque altar from the turn of the 18th and the 19th century. The external and internal doors in the porch and the doors to the pulpit and to the sacristy have been preserved (the door to sacristy functioned originally as the main entrance door).

The historic monument is accessible to visitors. Viewing of the church is possible directly before and after services.

compiled by Beata Dygulska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Gdańsk, 10-12-2014.

Bibliography

• Sadkowski T., Drewniana architektura sakralna na Pomorzu Gdańskim w XVIII-XX w., Gdańsk 1977.
• Fryda M., Kościoły Człuchowa i okolicy, Człuchów 1995, s.56