Late-Gothic carpentry details have been preserved in the temple: pointed, profiled rood arch, corbels supporting the eaves of the roof, profiled portals and window frames with ogee lintels.

History

According to tradition, in 1325 the rector of the church in Racławice was Jan. In 1473 Iohanes Zak de Zawada made a triptych for the church. It is also known that in the 16th century the hamlet was the royal property, and the king was its patron. Whether the monarch also founded the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the place of the former one in 1511 is not certain. The low pole-frame tower was added to the church from the west at the end of the 16th century. The sacristy was built from the north and the porch from the south in the 19th century. In the mid-19th century, the arcades were demolished.

Description

The church in Racławice stands on the slope of a small hill, in the middle of the hamlet by a road. It is surrounded by a graveyard fenced with wooden logs. The view of the church from the south-west is obscured by a 1930 belfry boarded with vertical planks.

The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary is built of larch wood. It is a single-nave temple erected as a roof truss structure. It is oriented, with its chancel narrower than the nave and closed on three sides. The pole-frame tower is on the west side. The tower walls narrow upwards. It has a porch in the ground level. The temple is covered with a steep gable, single-ridge, shingled roof topped with a Baroque tin cupola with a lantern. The tower, also shingled, is covered with a hipped roof. The sacristy adjoins the chancel from the south. A later-dated porch touches the nave from the south - it has a wide eave supported by corbels. A special feature of the church in Racławice is the external system of ties in the form of chamfered corbels connecting rafters with lower truss beams, which can be rarely seen in the oldest known structures. The larch framework rests on a stone foundation and is covered with formwork made of vertically fastened planks.  Inside, flat ceilings with encased upper logs in the nave. The oldest carpentry details are a semicircular arcade (the rood beam features the Crucifixion scene from the time of the construction of the church), late Gothic portals with ogee lintels, doors to the sacristy with an oblique lattice, window tops shaped into an ogee arch from the inside. The interior is covered with a Mannerist polychrome in a multi-layered arrangement with Passion and Holy Mary cycles and the figures of saints from the first half of the 17th century. The main altarpiece and three side altars are late Baroque from the 18th century. The pulpit, the baptismal font made of black Dębnik marble and the tombstone of an unidentified knight are in the late Renaissance style from the 17th century. On the walls of the nave, pieces of Gothic altars can be seen, including wings with depictions of four holy virgins and the Annunciation scene dating back to 1473, and the Gothic and Renaissance triptych of the Holy Family with the Holy Mary scenes from 1520.

The church can be viewed from the outside. During the summer season, the site is available from Thursday through Saturday from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., except for a short break between 1:00 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. On Sundays from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.

Author of the note Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 01/08/2014

Bibliography

• Chrzanowski T., Kornecki M., Sztuka Ziemi Krakowskiej, Kraków 1982
• Dyba O., Majka M., Zabytki architektury i budownictwa w Polsce. Vol. 18, part 2, Województwo krakowskie, Warszawa 1995
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. I, Województwo krakowskie, no. 6, Powiat krakowski, Warszawa 1953
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