The building, made of larch wood, was erected for Calvinists and serves religious purposes to this day. It is the only wooden Calvinist church preserved in Greater Poland. The church is one of the twelve wooden churches covered by the project “Trail of Wooden Churches Around the Zielonka Forest”, run by Związek Międzygminny “Puszcza Zielonka” (Inter-Gmina Association “Zielonka Forest”), which is co-financed by the Integrated Operational Programme for Regional Development.

History

The village of Rejowiec was founded in 1626 by a grandson of Mikołaj Rej of Nagłowice, Andrzej Rej, a Calvinist, for German settlers brought from Brandenburg. He also built a larch Calvinist house of worship for the newcomers in the centre of the village. When the lands became part of the Prussian Partition, local Calvinists merged with a new wave of German settlers and yielded to the Evangelical majority. The present church was built on the site where the previous church was located (or possibly the old church was modified) in 1820, along with a free-standing bell tower. The date “1820” is displayed on the flag topping the church steeple. Until 1945, the building served as an Evangelical house of worship; since 1947, it has been a Roman Catholic filial church. The Parish was consecrated in 1976 by Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński, Primate of Poland. The church underwent full-scale renovations in the years 1953-58.

Description

The Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Rejowiec is situated on a small plot of land in the northern part of the village, on the east side of a road to Skoki. The church yard is enclosed with a wooden fence resting on a stone base. By the fence, to the south-east of the church, there is a wooden bell tower. The church has a wooden log structure resting on a stone plastered wall base. The exterior walls are covered with weatherboards. The church is oriented towards the east. The nave has a rectangular floor plan. The chancel, terminated polygonally, is adjoined by a sacristy terminating in a flat wall on the east side. The entrance to the church is located in a square porch on the west side of the church. Inside, there is a flat ceiling supported by six round posts. A matroneum — a relic of the Evangelical period — runs around the nave. The church has a gable roof covered with roof tiles. Over the western part of the nave, there is a steeple topped with a tall hip roof made of sheet metal. After the church was taken over by the Catholics, at first it had no fittings and furnishings. All essential equipment was brought from other Catholic churches.

The Baroque altar comes from a collegiate church in Kruszwica. The Rococo tabernacle comes from a church in Dąbrówka Kościelna. In the porch, there are 13 coats of arms of Calvinist noble families. The paintings and sculptures come from modern times. Next to the church, there is a wooden bell tower resting on a stone wall base; its walls, made of wooden beams, are covered with boards. It is covered with a gable roof.

Limited access, Holy Masses: Sunday at 9.00 AM, 11.00 AM, 15.00 PM, weekdays: 18.00 PM, holy days suppressed of obligation or transferred to another day: 9.00 AM, 11.00 AM, 18.00 PM.

compiled by Beata Marzęta, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Poznan, 24.11.2015.

Bibliography

• Brykowski R., Wielkopolskie Kościoły Drewniane, Poznań 2001; str. 169
• Drewniane kościoły Wielkopolski, Poznań 2004, s. 218
• Jaśkowiak F., Województwo Poznańskie, Warszawa-Poznań 1980, s. 227
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Warszawa 1964, t. V, z. 27, s. 19
• Kowalski J., Na szlaku kościołów drewnianych wokół Puszczy Zielonka, Dębogóra 2011, 155-158