History

The church was erected in 1753 (although some sources claim that its actual date of construction was 1722), with the owners of the local manor - Aleksander Suchodolski and his wife Katarzyna - providing the necessary funds. The church was built in the site of an earlier chapel and initially served as the filial church of the parish in Potok Wielki. It underwent restoration on a number of occasions during the 19th century, including in 1850, when the interiors received the wall paintings executed by Jan Kaliszewski, a painter from Kraśnik. In years 1958-59, the church underwent a comprehensive restoration which involved the replacement of the exterior weatherboard cladding, the roof cladding as well as the renovation of the polychromy inside. In 1905, the original wood shingles on the roof were replaced by sheet metal cladding. In years 1988-1990, the church and the bell tower underwent a thorough restoration, while in years 2002-2004 the porch was extended both upwards and sideways.

The bell tower was built somewhere around the year 1825, while the original brick perimeter wall with corner shrines is believed to date back to the early 19th century. It was later replaced by the present fence which extends beyond the original outline but preserves the 19th-century shrines.

Description

The church complex consists of the church, bell tower and processional shrines which had originally been linked together by a now-defunct brick perimeter wall.

Located north of the village, the church stands on the western side of the road leading from Kraśnik to Potok Wielki. The church. The church belongs to the so-called “Kraśnik group” of wooden temples distinguished by the absence of a tower in their front façades. The chancel of the church faces north. It was designed on a floor plan consisting of a rectangular, single-nave main body and a narrower chancel with a semi-hexagonal termination, its height being identical to that of the nave; a sacristy adjoins the chancel to the west, while the nave is adjoined by a porch towards the south which started its life as a relatively small structure but was later substantially extended. The church is a wooden corner-notched log structure reinforced with vertical supports, its walls clad with weatherboards. The nave and the chancel are covered with a domical vault with a flat centre section, with the encased upper logs of the chancel side walls running along the entire length of the nave. A pair of pillars in the nave serve to reinforce the ceiling structure. The roof truss above the nave is a rafter-and-purlin structure reinforced with queen post frames. The main body of the church and the chancel share a single gable roof with a common ridge, topped with a multi-tier steeple; the roof above the porch is of the gable type, while the sacristy features a shed roof. All roofs are clad with sheet metal. The façades are covered with vertically arranged, end-jointed weatherboards, with a pronounced socle and sill plate covered with horizontally arranged weatherboards at the bottom. The weatherboards covering the gable of the nave follow a diagonal pattern. Decorative fretwork pelmets run along the edges of the gables. The eight-paned windows are rectangular in shape, adorned with wooden surrounds. Inside, the church features an organ gallery with a bulging parapet, supported by a pair of columns; the interior fixtures and fittings are designed in the Rococo style and date back from the 2nd half of the 18th century. The interior walls are graced by painted decorations from the mid-19th century, repainted in the mid-20th century. The bell tower was designed as a two-storey building on a square floor plan. The tower is a post-and-frame structure with a tented roof, its walls covered with end-jointed weatherboards arranged in a vertical pattern. The bell openings feature an unusual, polygonal shape and are adorned with fretwork wooden pelmets at the top.

Processional shrines. The free-standing shrines located in the corners of the cemetery surrounding the church were most likely erected in the early 19th century (although this remains uncertain) and originally formed part of a now-defunct perimeter wall. The design of the shrines shows evident Classicist influences. The shrines are designed on a triangular plan with truncated corners and are made of brick, their walls covered with plaster, with each shrine topped with a gable rooflet. The front façades are topped with triangular, corniced pediments and partitioned with decorative panels. Each shrine features a deep, arched niche occupied by a figure of a saint positioned on a plinth.

The site is open to visitors.

compiled by Bożena Stanek-Lebioda, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Lublin, 12-12-2014.

Bibliography

• Record sheet. Parish church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord. Rzeczyca Ziemiańska, compiled by Kiełboń Cz., 1991, Archive of the Regional Office for the Protection of Historical Monuments in Lublin; Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw.
• Record sheet. Parish church bell tower. Rzeczyca Ziemiańska, compiled by Kiełboń Cz., 1991, Archive of the Regional Monuments Protection Office in Lublin; Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw.
• Record sheet. Cemetery perimeter wall with shrines. Rzeczyca Ziemiańska, compiled by Teodorowicz-Czerepińska J., 2009, Archive of the Regional Monuments Protection Office in Lublin; Archive of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Warsaw.
• Górak J., Typy i formy drewnianej architektury sakralnej Lubelszczyzny, “Kwartalnik Architektury i Urbanistyki”, 1987, no. 3-4, pp. 240-242.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Vol. VIII: Województwo lubelskie, issue 9: Powiat kraśnicki, compiled by Galicka I., Rowińska E., Warsaw 1961, pp. 30-31.