History

The church was erected in the 12th century and dedicated to St Vincent. The oldest mention confirming the existence of the church refers to the hand-over, in 1284, of the village of Stary Żagań together with patronage over the church, to an Augustinian monastery. Until the secularisation of the monastery in 1810, it belonged to the abbey in Żagań. In the years 1596-1663, it remained unused, and in the meantime, in 1626, it was robbed. The church was renovated in 1670 owing to the efforts of the abbot of the Augustinian order in Żagań, Kaspar Fabritius. During the renovation, windows were redesigned, and earlier, in the 15th century, the chancel was covered with a vault, and the church cemetery was enclosed with a stone wall. In the 18th century, a sacristy and a porch were added to the building, and Baroque gates in the fencing were built.

Description

The church is located in the middle of the village, on the western side of the route from Nowogród Bobrzański to Żagań, on a square circumscribed by a stone wall. The Romanesque, oriented building was erected in the form of two solids adjoining each other: a single-nave body and a slightly narrower chancel apse on the west. The nave is covered with a high gable roof, and the chancel with a roof shaped as a half-cone. In the roof ridge of the main body, there is an octagonal steeple with a lantern, topped with a spire with a cross on an orb. To the nave, a sacristy was added from the north, and from the south - a porch. Both annexes were erected on a floor plan resembling a square and covered with gable roofs. The church is built of field stone and lime mortar, the eastern gable of the nave is made of brick. The roofs are covered with beaver tail tiles forming a “lace” pattern. The whole steeple - its walls, lantern, and tented roof - is clad in sheet metal. The western façades of the nave and the sacristy, and façades of the porch are plastered. From the other façades, plasterwork applied at a later time was removed, and their external face is made of stone. Splayed windows, topped with segmental arches, are flanked with plaster surrounds. The façades are topped with profiled cornices. Inside, there is a nave covered with a wooden ceiling divided into sections, with painted decoration from the 17th century. The apse is covered with a cross-rib vault, and there is a wooden ceiling in the porch. Among the fittings, a Baroque altarpiece and a painting “Baptism in the Jordan river”, originating from the 17th century, have survived. On the southern side of the stone wall circumscribing the church area, there is a Baroque gate topped with a figure of St John of Nepomuk, originating probably from 1715. Four stone penitential crosses from the period between the 14th and the 16th century are embedded in the fencing.

The building is available all year round and may be visited upon prior appointment.

compiled by Anna Jackiewicz, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Zielona Góra, 27-11-2014.

Bibliography

• Garbacz K., Przewodnik po zabytkach województwa lubuskiego, t. 2: Powiaty: żarski - żagański - nowosolski - wschowski, Zielona Góra 2012, s. 119-120.
• Kowalski S., Zabytki architektury województwa lubuskiego, Zielona Góra 2010, s. 355.
• Karta ewidencyjna, Kościół filialny pw. Matki Boskiej Królowej Polski, oprac. S. Kowalski, 1999, Archiwum Wojewódzkiego Urzędu Ochrony Zabytków w Zielonej Górze