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Parish Church of St Laurence - Zabytek.pl

Parish Church of St Laurence


church Prusy

Address
Prusy

Location
woj. dolnośląskie, pow. strzeliński, gm. Kondratowice

The church in Prusy is a valuable example of a Renaissance church with preserved remnants of an even earlier structure - the Romanesque chancel and northern nave and the Gothic tower.

History

The parish church of St Lawrence in Prusy (known as Prauss until 1945) was first mentioned in written sources somewhere around 1315, when a reference was made to a local parish priest known as Johann von Pruz. From ca. 1534 until World War II, the church remained in the hands of the local Protestant community. The church is believed to have originally been known as the church of St Leonard. It was erected during the final thirty years of the 13th century or in the early 14th century; in the years 1495-1497, a tower funded by Hans von Borschnitz was erected west of the existing structure, with bells finally suspended in years 1503 and 1507. In 1612, the southern nave was erected, featuring a barrel vault with lunettes. The sacristy is believed to have been constructed during the same period, while the Late Romanesque vaulted ceilings in the northern nave were dismantled and replaced by a barrel vault with lunettes. At that point, the façades of the church received a geometric sgraffito decorative pattern. In 1660, a new, common roof truss was constructed above the nave. In the mid- 18th century, galleries were constructed inside the church. After 1889, the main entrance was adorned with a Gothic Revival portal. The church was restored in 1914 and then after 1937 (restoration of the sgraffito decorations). In years 1993 and 1998, the final renovation works were performed, encompassing both the interiors and the sgraffito decorations gracing the façades.

Description

The church is situated in the eastern part of the village, on the top of a hill, surrounded by the village buildings and the former cemetery. It is a compact structure oriented towards the east, its walls reinforced with buttresses. The church is covered with a gable roof. Its five-storey tower is crowned with a modern metal railing designed to mimic the shape of an Early Renaissance roof parapet, consisting of recurring semi-circle and dovetail motifs. The roof of the tower is a pyramid-shaped structure.

The church is made of brick and stone (split stone and granite ashlar blocks), its walls covered with plaster. The façades of the building (including the buttresses) are covered with geometric sgraffito decorations designed to imitate rectangular quoins dressed at an angle near the edge as well as strips of interlacing pattern (partially reconstructed); the window surrounds and door portals are made of sandstone.

The church interior follows a two-nave layout. The older, northern nave is a two-bay structure with a stellar vault, featuring a square-shaped, single-bay Late Romanesque chancel with a ribbed groin vault with elevated rise. A square tower adjoins the western side of the nave. The southern nave, corresponding in length to the northern nave and chancel combined, is a three-bay structure, its eastern section featuring a barrel vault with lunettes adorned with decorative bands (including a preserved medallion with the date “1612” and the monogram which reads “ML”); only the western bay of the nave features a stellar vault instead. The sacristy, designed on a square floor plan and featuring a vaulted ceiling of the barrel type, adjoins the northern side of the chancel. A wooden organ gallery with an openwork balustrade occupies the western part of the church.

The most important elements of the interior fixtures and fittings are:

Main altarpiece designed in the Baroque style, dating back to the 1780s and made of polychromed wood, originally created for the chapel of St Augustine located inside a manor house in Prusy.

Baptismal font designed in the Mannerist style (ca. 1612), made of sandstone, with a wooden lid from the 1780s.

Northern portal built during the final thirty years of the 13th century - a stone structure with stepped reveals, adorned with columns topped with capitals decorated with maple leaves.

Bell cast in 1507 by Mathias Halbritter from Jelenia Góra, funded by Wenceslaus(?) von Borschnitz.

The historic monument is accessible to visitors. Information on church service times can be found on the website of the Wrocław archdiocese: www.archidiecezja.wroc.pl.

compiled by Bogna Oszczanowska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Wrocław, 15-09-2014.

Bibliography

  • Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce. Powiat strzeliński, E. Kołaczkiewicz (ed.), Warsaw 2008, pp. 150-153.
  • Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, Warsaw 2006, p. 709.

Category: church

Architecture: Gothic

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_02_BK.81132, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_02_BK.97351