The author of the temple was Jakub Kubicki - a well-known, Warsaw-based architect of the Classicist era, working, among others, for the king Stanislaus Augustus Poniatowski. The design of the church referred to a winning concept presented by the architect in 1792 as part of the competition for the Divine Providence Temple in Warsaw. Kubicki creatively used this unexecuted design in a more modest work in Mokobody and - in a highly altered version - in Nadarzyn. The church in Radziejowice combines the features of the abovementioned temples and represents an example of high-class Classicist architecture.

History

In 1786 Anna Krasińska nee Ossolińska and Kazimierz Krasiński, camp commander of the Crown, obtained a permit to found a parish and build a church in the Radziejowice estate. The first church was made of wood and stood on an elevation opposite the palace. In the years 1820-1822, by efforts of Józef Wawrzyniec Krasiński, senator castellan of the Kingdom of Poland, and his wife Emilia nee Ossolińska, the current masonry church was built to the design of Jakub Kubicki, along with a wooden belfry and rectory buildings. The structure of a double cupola of the temple was created by a foreman Karol Lik. The church was consecrated in 1821. It underwent multiple renovations, among others, in 1873 and 1883, when the pulpit and the baptismal font were relocated to their current places. In 1939 the church underwent complete renovation under the guidance of architect Konstanty Jakimowicz. Renovations of the façade carried out after 1980 distorted the initial detail. In the 1860s the church cemetery was relocated to a separate parcel, east of the church. Between 1873 and 1889, in place of a wooden belfry, a masoned one was built, funded by Count Józef Krasiński.

Description

The church complex is located on the eastern edge of the town, at the Warsaw-Mszczonów route. It occupies a fenced parcel on the northern side of Kubicki Street, which is a historic lime tree alley leading from the palace to the church. In the centre of the fenced area of the old cemetery, there is a church surrounded by old tree stands, and a belfry in the south-western corner.

The church, however relatively small, dominates over the surroundings with its compact, Classicist body. The temple is built of brick and plastered. It was founded on a central octagonal floor plan, with two rectangular avant-corps on opposing sides. The southern, front avant-corps houses a porch with an annex and a staircase leading to the choir gallery. The northern avant-corps includes a presbytery; behind it, there is a sacristy with a vestibule and an oval staircase leading to the treasury on the upper floor. Both avant-corps are crowned with triangular pediments. Facades of the temple with striped rustication were partitioned by a currently faint string course. They are crowned with entablature resting on corbels. A plain middle part of the front façade, with slight breaks of the avant-corps type, includes a recessed portico on the axis, accentuated with two Tuscan columns, terminating in a semi-circular panel with a thermal window over a cubic cornice. Rectangular window and door openings of the side façades of avant-corps are accentuated with profiled surrounds and decorated with fragments of entablature and panels. Beyond them and in oblique walls of the nave there are semi-circular windows; oval and round windows are found in the upper part. Large thermal windows are found along axes of side walls. Gable roofs over avant-corps and eight-faced, cupola roof with a lantern in the crest over the nave are clad with steel sheet. An octagonal corpus of the nave includes an interestingly arranged octagonal interior partitioned by engaged columns with pilasters. Shallow, tall, arcaded niches housing altars are found along axes of side walls; narrower niches, over which two storeys of boxes, are found along diagonal axes. The nave space over the entablature terminates in a flattened double cupola with lunettes. Among the prevailing Classicist fittings of the temple, particular attention should be paid to altars, probably coming from the first wooden church in Radziejowice. Painted en grisaille on a batten, they make an illusionist impression of spatial, wooden, Baroque altars, while coats of arms of Krasiński and Ossoliński families placed therein remind us about their presence in the history of Radziejowice. West of the church front façade, there is a belfry from the late 19th century, made of brick and plastered, erected on a square plan, two-storey, crowned with a tented, cupola roof with an onion-like shape, clad with sheet metal. The building has modest façades terminating in pilasters on corners, partitioned by profiled cornices and crowned with a cornice with dentils. The façades are adorned with rectangular windows with traceries and panels with semicircular arches as well as two portals with triangular crowning.

The monument is available to visitors outside the hours of religious services.

Compiled by Małgorzata Laskowska-Adamowicz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw, 07-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Barbasiewicz M., Pustoła-Kozłowska E., Radziejowice. Fakty i zagadki, Warszawa 1997.
• Cabanowski M. Opowieści o kościołach dawnego dekanatu grodziskiego, Grodzisk Mazowiecki 1996, s. 131-137
• Faryna-Paszkiewicz H., Omilanowska M., Pasieczny R., Atlas zabytków architektury w Polsce, Warszawa 2001.
• Galicka I., Sygietyńska H., Zabytki Grodziska Mazowieckiego i okolic [w]: red. Kazimierski J. Dzieje Grodziska Mazowieckiego, s. 289-296.
• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, T. X.: Województwo warszawskie, z. 4: Powiat grodzisko-mazowiecki, oprac. Izabella Galicka, Hanna Sygietyńska, Warszawa 1967, s. 19-20.
• Żabicki J., Leksykon zabytków architektury Mazowsza i Podlasia, Warszawa 2010.
• Karta Ewidencyjna, Kościół parafialny pw. św. Kazimierza, oprac. Koszewska Dorota, Radziejowice 1980, Archiwum NID.
• Karta Ewidencyjna, Kościół parafialny pw. św. Kazimierza, oprac. Marcjanik Eliza, Radziejowice 1982, Archiwum NID
• Karta Ewidencyjna, Dzwonnica,  oprac. Koszewska Dorota, Radziejowice 1980, Archiwum NID