History

The parish in Rabka was established by 1559. The church was built in 1606 in place of a former one, funded by Wawrzyniec Spytek Jordan in 1565, that had been destroyed. In the 18th century, a tower was added and an ave bell spirelet. In the years 1775-1778, the church was renovated. The polychrome in the interior was made in 1802 by the local parish priest and painter, the Rev. Andrzej Antałkiewicz. The temple was refurbished in 1913. After 1908, the church was not used any more because a new, brick parish church was erected. In 1936, thanks to the efforts of the Rev. Justyn Bulanda, a museum was installed in the tower’s ground floor. Currently, the church houses the Władysław Orkan Museum.

Description

It stands at the intersection of ul. Orkana and ul. Sądecka. The church is an oriented, single-nave temple with a polygonally closed presbytery; the nave is wider and rectangular. The sacristy touched the chancel from the north; the nave has a vestibule to the south. From the west, there is a square tower with sloping walls, with an overhanging extension, covered with an onion cupola with a lantern. A vestibule adjoins it from the west. The single-ridge roof has an ave bell turret with a cupola and a lantern. The church is a wooden log structure, and the tower has a pole design. The roof and walls are shingled. The ground floor is covered with shingled aprons. The interior features corbel barrel vaults with encased upper logs in the nave. The east chancel wall features a wooden chapel with the figures of Christ Crucified, the Virgin Mary, St John the Evangelist and St Mary Magdalene. The church is surrounded by a stone wall covered with a shingle, gable roof. Recesses in the wall posts hold the stations of the Way of the Cross. Within the church premises, there are several tombstones from an old cemetery and a sculpture of the patron of the Rabka museum and the great aficionado of the Gorce Mountains, Władysław Orkan. The interior of the temple boast a polychrome with ornamental and figural motifs. The patron of the church, St Mary Magdalene, is depicted on the chancel ceiling with penitential items. The nave vault shows a scene of the Coronation of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Trinity. The most valuable items in the church are the neo-Baroque main altar, the 19th-century pulpit, Rococo side altars, the 18th-century choir gallery, and the organ screen. In the altar on the north side of the church, there is a 16th-century painting of the Mother of God with Child, which was originally part of a triptych. In the west nave wall, there are human teeth poked between the framework beams. The highlanders put them there to beg the intercession of St Apollonia against toothache.

The building is accessible during the opening hours of the museum.

Author of the note Olga Dyba, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 22/10/2014

Bibliography

• Ceklarz K., Monografia Muzeum im. Władysława Orkana. Rabka 2010.
• Janicka-Krzywda U., Zabytkowe kościoły Orawy, Spisza, Podhala, Gorców i Pienin. Kraków 1987.