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Roman Catholic Parish Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul - Zabytek.pl

Roman Catholic Parish Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul


church First half of the 16th century Sobota

Address
Sobota

Location
woj. łódzkie, pow. łowicki, gm. Bielawy

A building from the first half of the 16th century, an example of Gothic-Renaissance churches of Mazovia.

History

The church dates back to the first half of the 16th century. The precise date of its construction is unknown. The oldest document concerning the church describes a visit of Archbishop Jan Łaski in 1521, mentioning the parish church. Inside the church, there is a plaque with a Latin inscription marking the renovation of the building in 1851. In addition, the plaque contains information about the date of the construction of the temple: “the parish church in Sobota under the invocation of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, funded by Tomasz Sobocki - the former heir of the Sobota estate, was built in 1518”. A stone with an inscription THOAS. S and the date 1.5.1.8” was found under the crown of the wall of the northern elevation of the nave, next to the angular buttress of the front elevation. A fragment of a figure is also visible on the stone. The figure is pointing at the inscription with its hand. It probably shows the founder of the church, Tomasz Sobocki – judge of the Łęczyca region, and the date refers to the year of the construction of the walls. (?)

Based on the findings of a stylistic and comparative analysis, rather than on documents, it can be presumed that the eastern and western walls of the church were erected around 1558. The decorations of the gables in the church in Sobota are almost identical to those crowning the church in nearby Chruślin, whose roof truss and gable walls were found to have been completed in 1558. This is why it is assumed that the church in Sobota was also constructed around 1558.

According to the Latin inscription on the cast iron plaque, in 1851 the church was “rebuilt”. Several alterations were presumably made then and the vestibule and the sacristy probably should be dated to that period.

Description

The church was built in the centre of the village, on the axis of the Orłów-Parcele - Nowe Zduny road. It stands in the middle of a church cemetery surrounded by a brick 19th-century fence. It is oriented.

The Gothic-Renaissance temple was built on a floor plan of juxtaposed, elongated rectangles: the nave and the chancel. At present, the main body of the church consists of four combined cuboids – a nave, a slightly lower and narrower chancel, sacristy (from 1851) at the northern wall of the chancel and a church porch (from 1851) at the southern wall. In the corner between the eastern wall of the nave and the southern wall of the chancel, there is a tower on a circular plan, partially embedded in the body of the temple. The nave and the chancel are covered with gable roofs. The church porch adjoining the nave and the sacristy adjoining the chancel are covered with shed roofs. All roofs are clad with sheet metal.

The gables of the nave and the eastern gable of the chancel are triangular. Above the eastern gable of the nave there is a turret with a spire, built on a circular plan, covered with a little dome.

The church was built from bricks laid in a Polish – Gothic pattern. The elevations are divided by the buttresses supporting the walls, two at the northern wall and another two at the southern wall of the chancel and three at each wall of the nave. On the ground level, all the walls of the building are slightly set off - by the width of the brick. The northern and southern elevations of the nave and of the chancel are smooth, articulated by high, splayed window openings, each topped with a pointed arch. They contain multi-section windows in ornamental metal frames, glazed with single panes.

The walls of the nave and of the chancel are crowned with a two-part, wide, whitewashed under-eaves strip. The splayed window reveals are whitewashed too.

In the western elevation on the ground level, on the axis, there is the main entrance to the church. The door opening is enclosed by a narrow, brick offset, placed in the splayed recess topped with a full arch. Above the entrance, there is also a splayed window opening topped with a pointed arch. The window is divided into many sections and has an ornamental metal frame. Its shape matches the shape of the stone tracery. At the level of the window, on the wall, there is a decorative strip of zendrówka bricks arranged in a rhombus pattern. Above the window, at the end of the wall, there is a narrow whitewashed panel, above which there is a cornice crowning the elevation. Further above, there is a triangular, three-storey gable. Each of the horizontal strips of the gable is flanked by scroll-like volutes. In the lowest part, there are high, narrow arcades. Above, circle-shaped decorative panels are arranged in a four-leaf pattern. Similar ornamentation fills the tympanum of the triangular pediment crowning the gable. At the corners and at the top of the gable, there are simple pinnacles shaped like low pillars, each covered with a conical or pointed-arch finial.

The chancel is terminated with a straight wall of the eastern elevation. In its central part, there are three gypsum (?) plates: the middle one depicts the crucifixion and is flanked by two decorative volutes. The triangular top of the elevation matches the one on the western elevation, however, there is also the Jastrzębiec coat of arms placed within one of the arcades.

The entrance opening leading to the church porch is topped with a pointed arch portal.

The entrance opening to the sacristy is topped with a segmental arch. Above it, there is a small, pointed arch window. The walls of the sacristy are supported by three buttresses.

Over the nave and the chancel, the roof truss consists of a king-post rafter framing reinforced with queen posts positioned horizontally next to the rafters.

Inside, the single-space nave and the single-space chancel are connected by a point-arched opening. The chancel is covered with a stellar vault, whereas the nave is topped with a cradle with lunettes. There is a diamond vault above the sacristy.

The fixtures and fittings of the church include the main altar with the image of Christ, the 16th-century baptismal font with the coat of arms of the Sobocki family, as well as three tombstones. Two of them, honouring the memory of the Sobocki family, represent the Renaissance style and date approximately to the mid-16th century. These are architectural tombstones made of sandstone, placed next to the wall. The rectangular recesses contain carved slabs set on plinths and topped with finials. The first of these tombstones is two-storey with two slabs with the figures of Tomasz (died 1527) and Jakub, courtier of Sigismund I the Old (died 1540). The second tombstone is one-storey and contains the remains of Thomas, the chancellor of Sigismund I the Old (died 1548). It features a cast bronze, engraved and chiselled plate with the recumbent effigy of the deceased dressed in armour and a helmet, as well as a heraldic cartouche. The third is a Classicist, sandstone tomb placed next to the wall, with a statue of a young man extinguishing a torch, erected for Cyprian Zawisza Czarny, who died in 1827.

The church is accessible during services on Sundays and public holidays at 9.00 a.m. and 11.30 a.m., on weekdays: at 8 a.m. (in May and in October additionally at 5 p.m.) and upon prior arrangement: phone number (46) 838-21-66.

Compiled by Agnieszka Lorenc - Karczewska, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Łódź. 11 February 2019

Bibliography

  • Gryglewski P., Vetusta Monumenta, Szlacheckie mauzoleum od połowy XV do XVII w., [in:] Sztuka Polski Środkowej, Łódź 2002,
  • Kunkel R., Architektura gotycka w Polsce, Warszawa 2006
  • Kunkel R., Jan Baptysta Wenecjanin, budowniczy i obywatel płocki, “Biuletyn Historii Sztuki”, no. 1 from 1983, pp. 25-46
  • Lewicka M., Problematyka badań architektury renesansowej na Mazowszu, “Biuletyn Historii Sztuki” no. 2 from 1963, pp. 130-140,
  • Lentowicz Z., Historical and architectural documentation of the church in Sobota, Skierniewickie Voivodeship, Kielce 1977, archives of the Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Łódź,
  • Catalogue of Monuments of Art in Poland, Vol. I and II, Łódzkie Voivodeship, edited by Jerzy Łoziński, Warsaw 1954.

Category: church

Architecture: Gothic

Building material:  brick

Protection: Register of monuments, Monuments records

Inspire id: PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_N_10_BK.133293, PL.1.9.ZIPOZ.NID_E_10_BK.184451