The church includes rich furnishings from the 16th to 18th century made by such artists as Santi Gucci (the sacrarium from 1590 and the tombstone of Jakub and Anna Sancygniowski from after 1588), Antoni Gegenbaur (the main altar from 1763-65) and Łukasz Orłowski (paintings of the Crucifixion from 1763 and of St. Barbara from 1764).

History

According to Długosz the present church of St. Peter and Paul in Sancygniów was built in 1400 by Piotr Sancygniowski. It was not until 1413 that a parish was established there, and it was first mentioned in the sources in 1470-80. On the initiative of Anna and Jakub Sancygniowski, the church was significantly transformed (the tower was raised) in the 1580s-90s and some of its furnishing was replaced. In the 1760s-70s, Antoni Grodzicki, the cup-bearer of Zator, and the parishioners financed a thorough modernisation of the church’s interior design combined with the replacement of its furnishings; these works were carried out by artists from Krakow, including the sculptor A. Gegenbaur and painter Ł. Orłowski. The temple was once again restored in 1783, when the roof and vaulting of the nave were repaired and a porch was added from the south, where around 1791 the tombstone of the Sancygniowski family was placed. The quality of these works was poor, and in 1835 the technical condition of the church was considered bad. Therefore its walls were reinforced in 1838-40. The roofs, buttresses and vaults were repaired. In 1897, thanks to the efforts of the parish priest Piotr Waśkiewicz and Andrzej Deskur, an upward extension was added to the south porch, the interior was restored (the polychromes on the vaults were made by Mateusz Mączyński) and the church furnishing was renovated (altars). Further renovations of the building were carried out in 1949-51, 1975-76, 1987. In 1992, the polychrome and interior décor were renovated. In 2006-7, the southern porch underwent thorough conservation (the detail was partially reconstructed, as were the rustications and plasters, and in 2009-10, the altars of St. Anthony and St. Joseph were restored.

Description

The Gothic parish church is located on a small hill, in the northeastern corner of the village near the pond and palace complex. It is situated in the centre of an oval plot of land, surrounded by a wall. The church is an oriented building, consisting of a rectangular, three-span body and a separate chancel, polygonally enclosed. There is a low, rectangular sacristy by the chancel from the north. The following elements were added to the nave: from the west, a four-storey, square tower with a porch on the ground floor and a two-storey, square staircase tower, and a two-storey, rectangular porch on the south side. The body of the church was made of stone, partially plastered, enclosed with buttresses. It is covered with a gable roof with a steeple (above the nave and the porch), a hip roof (above the chancel), a shed roof (above the sacristy) and a pyramid cupola (on the tower). The following elements are distinguished from among the modest façades of the church: the eastern wall of the chancel with the Crucifixion group in the niches (statues of the Blesses Virgin Mary and St. John from the second quarter of the 15th century.?) and the front façade of the south porch with a neo-Gothic, rusticated storey with statues in the niches. The entrance to the church is accentuated by stone profiled portals in the southern porch (external from 1897, internal from the 15th century) and the western porch (two from 4th quarter of the 16th century. The interior is covered with a vaulting: a barrel vaulting with lunettes (in the nave), double barrel vaulting (in the chancel), barrel (in the sacristy) and a ceiling (in the tower). The entrance from the chancel to the sacristy is accentuated by a Mannerist portal with a sculpted top from around 1590 (S. Gucci’s workshop?). The vaults of the nave and the chancel are covered with polychromes made by M. Mączyński. Among the rich furnishings of the church, the following are noteworthy: the pulpit, benches, pipe organ casing, choir stalls and 5 altars from the 1760s and 70s (main altar made by A. Gegenbaur?, 1763-65), altar paintings (Anna Samotrzeć from 1591 and two by Łukasz Orłowski: Crucifixion from 1763 - based on the crucifix of Wit Stwosz from St. Mary’s Church in Krakow and St. Barbara from 1764), a painting of the Crucifixion from the late 16th century (according to the graphics by Albrecht Dürer, sign. P.T.T.), a Renaissance sacrarium from 1590, a baptismal font from ca. 1588 and a two-storey tombstone of the Sancygniowski family from after 1588 (attributed to S. Gucci’s workshop) and a Classicist tombstone of Stefan and Ewa Dembowski from 1804 (design by Sebastian Sierakowski?, made by Leonardo Galli?).

The monument is open to visitors. The interiors may be explored upon prior arrangement with the parish priest.

Łukasz Piotr Młynarski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kielce,  04.06.2015.

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