Parish Church of St John the Baptist - Zabytek.pl
Address
Skotniki
Location
woj. świętokrzyskie, pow. sandomierski, gm. Samborzec
Valuable wall painting decorations of the 14th and 15th century preserved inside.
History
First record of Skotniki dates back to 1167. The parish church was funded in 1347 by Jarosław Bogoria of Skotniki, the archbishop of Gniezno, and consecrated in 1370. About 1370 the ceiling was decorated with a polychrome which has survived until today on the rood wall. After 1455 the nave was covered with a stellar vault and supported on a centrally located pillar. A 1500 source mentions a hospital and a shelter for the poor next to the church. It is known that in 1782 the church has a wooden belfry; it was replaced after 1875 by a stone one. The church was partly damaged during the 1582 flood. It was renovated in the 16th century, in the mid-18th century, after WWI and WW2, in the 1970s and after a fire in 1981.
Description
The church is located in the east section of the village, close to a manor house, in the former Vistula River floodland. It is an oriented, Gothic church, made of brick in a Polish pattern with a geometric burr brick decoration on the façades. The nave and presbytery walls are supported by buttresses with an additional buttress on the axis of the west wall. From the north, the presbytery adjoins the original sacristy with an 18th-century east vestibule and a storeroom above; they are covered by a shared gable roof. At the end of the 18th century, a porch was added to the nave from the south. It was altered in 1903. The new one was laid out as a short rectangle; it was originally covered with a ceiling, now with a stellar vault, resting on a central octagonal pillar and corbels. The pillar was damaged in 1582 during the flood, then strengthened twice in the 16th and 17th century. Today, its original shape has been restored after the reinforcement with a steel frame. The one-bay presbytery is closed to the east on three sides and covered with a cross vault. The keystones in the vaulting are decorated with the coats of arms of Bogoria and Jastrzębiec. The pointed-arch windows in the north wall of the pointed-arch were walled up probably in the 15th century. The east window was also covered, with some of the tracery decoration visible from outside. Inside, on the rood wall of the nave, in the lower area of the arch and on the vault and walled-up windows of the presbytery, valuable polychromes were exposed and preserved in the 1970s dating back to ca. 1370, the 15th and 16th century. The original stone Gothic portals have remained: the main, south to the nave and from the presbytery to the sacristy; their door leaves have belt flashing from the 14th century. Around the church there is a churchyard, surrounded by a wall of 1903, with a belfry of the late 19th century and a statue of St John the Baptist on a high plinth and a column.
Complex generally available; sightseeing possible after prior arrangement with the parish priest.
Compiled by Marek Juszczyk, 10.12.2014.
Bibliography
- Domasłowski J., Karłowska-Kamzowa A., Kornecki M., Małkiewiczówna H., Gotyckie malarstwo ścienne w Polsce, Poznań 1984, s. 39-41.
- Juszczyk E. Skotniki. Kościół parafialny pod wezwaniem św. Jana Chrzciciela, b.m.r.w.
- Wiśniewski J., Dekanat sandomierski, Radom 1915.
- Żywicki J., Gotyckie malowidła ścienne w kościele parafialnym p.w. św. Jana Chrzciciela w Skotnikach koło Sandomierza, Lublin 1982, mps.
Category: church
Architecture: Gothic
Building material:
brick
Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records
Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_26_BK.68264, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_26_BK.428