History

Until 1388, the hamlet of Rodaki was a royal land. Later, it was granted to Włodek, the royal cup-bearer. The village was owned by the members of the nobility of the Łabędz coat of arms, from the Boner family, and Aleksander Celiński (in the 19th century) At the end of the 19th century, the land was parcelled out, and only the name of part of the village remained after the noble property. According to tradition, in 1325 the village of Chechło belonging to the parish had a wooden church. In 1601, or slightly earlier (the date of 1598 can be seen on the main altar frame), the present-day one-nave temple was erected in the same place of larch wood and in a roof truss structure. It is known that the Protection Committee of the Church of St Mark in Rodaki, active in the years 1905-1914, sponsored intensive renovation and restoration works, e.g. the straightening of the tilted walls, replacement of the floors and shingles. The shingles were also changed before the outbreak of WW2 and in 1955. In 1958, the bishop of Kielce, Czesław Kaczmarek established a parish in Rodaki. In 1972 the construction of a new temple began. It was consecrated in 1986. Most of the valuable equipment from the former St Mark’s church (which was transformed into a filial church) was moved to the new temple. In 2001 the monument was included in the Wooden Architecture Route, and in 2006 it underwent a thorough renovation which involved, for example, the replacement of ground and construction beams, flooring, and shingles.

Description

The Church of St Mark stands in the middle of the village by a road. Its adjacent cemetery is partially enclosed with a fence made of logs and with a stone wall. The view of the church from the south-west is obscured by old trees and shrubs growing on the neighbouring plot. The 1930 belfry is boarded with vertical planks. In the north-east corner of the church premises, there is a wooden belfry with a pillar structure, sloping walls and a shingled double-pitched roof.

The wooden, log church is an oriented, single-nave structure with its chancel on the outside, closed with a straight wall. From the north side, the sacristy adjoins the chancel and open arcades the nave. The larch framework rests on a stone foundation and is covered with formwork made of vertically fastened planks. The temple is covered with a steep, single-ridge, multi-hipped, shingled roof and topped with a wooden, baroque-like ave bell spirelet. The wide eaves of the roof from the south is supported at the ends of the ceiling joists with braces. Inside, there are flat ceilings and a semicircular rood beam with a Baroque cross. Originally (until the construction of the new church), the church equipment included Mannerist altars of the late 16th and early 17th centuries: the main one with polychrome imitating sculpted elements, three side ones (one of them featuring a late Gothic statue of St Nicholas from the early 15th century), a statue of the Risen Christ with Gothic reminiscences (from the church in Chechło), a Baroque, wooden epitaph of the Rev. Krzysztof Zaleski with the image of the Crucifixion and the figure of the deceased. 

The church can be viewed from the outside. In the afternoon, entrance to the church can be requested at the house on the opposite side of the road.

Author of the note Tomasz Woźniak, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 09/12/2015

Bibliography

• Chrzanowski T., Kornecki M., Sztuka Ziemi Krakowskiej, Kraków 1982
• Dziechciarz O., Przewodnik po ziemi olkuskiej. Gminy Klucze i Pilica, vol. II, Olkusz 2000
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, vol. I, Województwo krakowskie, no. 12, Powiat olkuski, Warszawa 1953
• Kornecki M., Kościoły drewniane w Małopolsce, Kraków 1999
• Krasnowolski B., Leksykon zabytków architektury Małopolski, Warszawa 2013