Today, its foreground is filled with urban sprawl, and the architectural landscape has been taken over by a new church with a spire tower and a sunken ridge of its tin roof.

History

The village was incorporated under German law before 1323. Historical sources mention a local parish in the years 1354-1355, however, it was apparently dissolved around 1561. It was re-established as late as in 1925. The original church has not survived, although its Gothic works of art have. The present-day, very modest church was there already before 1596 (tradition also point to 1513). Initially, the church was a single-nave structure, and the tower was added in the 17th century. Further conversions followed in 1910, and the whole complex was extended eastwards in 1924; a second sacristy was also added. Another renovation project was carried out in the years 1955-1956 and the last one in 1968 when attempts were made to broaden the interior by removing the walls of the annexes. In 1982 the temple was closed for worship; since 2010 it has been housing an art gallery.

Description

The church is oriented, surrounded by trees and a fence. It was erected as a log structure of coniferous wood and has boarded walls. All roofs are shingled. The plan of the church includes an elongated chancel closed on three sides (extended eastwards) and a nave of equal width, whose interior has been enlarged by significant space under the tower. Two large sacristy annexes and another narrow outbuilding at the nave and tower adjoin the body from the north. The interior has flat ceilings and boarded walls. The pillar tower, erected on a square plan, has its walls narrowing upwards, with a the upper level holding a bell and articulated in the formwork. The low spiky cupola is clad with shingles and topped with a cross. There used to be a Gothic triptych in the main altar; the wings of another altar with panel paintings were moved to the new church. The 17th-century Baroque pulpit, supposedly brought from Haligowce in Spiš, had a polygonal body divided by columns with the figurines of the Evangelists between them. The baptismal font, probably also from Haligowce, is wooden and hexagonal and following the Gothic tradition. Covered with a pyramidal cone, it has been moved to the new church. The interior was filled with pews and had a confessional. The triptych in the middle closet features a copy of a Gothic sculpture of the Virgin Mary with Child, which has been made based on the original kept at the Diocesan Museum in Tarnów.

The site is part of the Wooden Architecture Route.

Author of the note Roman Marcinek, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kraków 20/03/2015

Bibliography

• T. Szydłowski, Zabytki Sztuki w Polsce, Inwentarz topograficzny, III, Powiat nowotarski, Warszawa 1938
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, I, Woj. Krakowskie, ed. J. Szablowskiego, Warszawa 1953
• U. Janicka – Krzywda, Zabytkowe kościoły Orawy, Spisza, Podhala, Gorców i Pienin, Kraków 1987
• M. Kornecki, Biuletyn „Kościoły drewniane” no. 20/1994.
• F. Kopera, L. Lepszy, Kościoły drewniane w Galicji Zachodniej, Kraków 1916
• Rocznik Diecezji Tarnowskiej, Tarnów 1972
• J. Gadomski, Gotyckie malarstwo tablicowe Małopolski, vol. II, 1460-1500, Warszawa 1988; vol. III, 1500-1540, Warszawa 1995.