History

The origin of the Strzeleczki goes back to the 13th century, when the village was called Strelicz and served as a trade settlement. In 1327, the village of Strzeleczki was granted town rights. From the 14th century, it was a large town, which had a school and was the seat of a parish. The town survived the invasions of the Hussites in the 15th century and Swedish troops in the 17th century, and it lost the town rights only in the mid-18th century.

The present church in Strzeleczki was built in the second half of the 18th century probably with the preservation of the lower storey of the tower from the earlier late Gothic church.

Description

The church is located in the centre of the village, south of the market square, at the junction of Sienkiewicza Street and Kościelna Street, in an oval yard surrounded by a stone fence.

The church is oriented towards the east, with a rectangular nave and a chancel closed off on three sides. In the first bay of the nave, on the north and south sides there are rectangular chapels forming a transept; the chapels feature incised corners and terminate in apses. The northern chapel adjoins a rectangular porch. On the axis of the church, to the west there is a quadrangular tower flanked by annexes. In front of the tower, there is a rectangular porch. To the east, there is a sacristy which is an extension to the main body of the church.

The late Baroque church is built of brick and crushed stone, plastered, with walls featuring framework decoration and rusticated corner pilasters. The nave is pierced by window openings topped with basket-handle arches, enclosed in surrounds with accentuated corners and keystone. The body of the church is covered with saddle and mono-pitched roofs.

The front façade of the church is three-axial with a three-storey tower on the central axis, and flanked by lower annexes, and a porch projecting beyond the face of the façade. The rectangular entrance opening with a semicircular transom light on the axis of the porch is flanked by composite pilasters. The side façades are decorated with frame divisions; the north façade is pierced by a rectangular entrance. The porch is surmounted by a crowning cornice and a concave-convex gable; in its centre there is a semicircular window opening.

The quadrangular tower is articulated horizontally with inter-storey and crowning cornices and vertically with window openings on the axis (narrow rectangular window on the first storey, and a rectangular window and window topped with a round arch on the second storey). On the last storey, the quadrangular tower turns into an octagon; it is topped with a bulbous cupola with an octagonal lantern.

The church in Strzeleczki is aisleless with a chancel and side chapels opening towards the nave with arcades surmounted by a flattened arch. The interior is covered with double barrel vaults decorated with murals; the ground floor of the tower is topped with a groin vault. In the western bay, there is a music gallery with concave-convex balustrade. The walls of the interior are fragmented by mitred composite pilasters.

The fixtures and fittings dating from the late 18th century are uniform and include late Baroque main altar with a painting in the centre and statues of the Church Fathers, and a Holy Trinity group in the finial, side altars, pulpit adjoining a wall, and a baptismal font with an upward extension with a figurative depiction of the original sin, opposite to the pulpit.

The monument is open to visitors. Viewing of the interior is possible by prior telephone arrangement.

compiled by Aleksandra Ziółkowska, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Opole, 01-12-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, vol. VII: Województwo opolskie, issue 6: Powiat krapkowicki, prepared by T. Chrzanowski, M. Kornecki, Warsaw 1963, pp. 30-31.
• Lutsch H., Verzeichnis der Kunstdenkmäler der Provinz Schlesien, vol. 4: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Reg. Bezirks Oppeln, Breslau 1892, p. 313.