History

Originally it was a kiosk made at the end of 1895 in the factory of the Joint Stock Company of Big Furnaces and the Ostrowiec Works in Ostrowiec Świetokrzyski for the All-Russian Industrial and Artistic Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod in 1896. Ostrowiec engineers used the rails which remained from the 1895 order for the Riazan-Ural Railway. In 1906, according to Fr Jan Wiśniewski, the owners of the sugar factory in Częstocice transferred the said kiosk (after minor modifications) to the parish in Szewna for the main church gate. As a result, the stairs leading to it were rebuilt, new railings and four metal lamps were added, giving it a uniform stylistic expression. In 2013, conservation work was carried out on the gate, stairs and lanterns.

Description

The neo-Gothic iron gate is part of the parish church complex of St. Nicholas, situated in the centre of Szewna. It is situated on the edge of a hill reinforced with stone, south of the temple, in the line of the wall of the former church cemetery. Stone stairs lead to the gate, with decorative neo-Gothic balustrades and four lamps with hanging glass lanterns. The openwork gate has a plan of a Greek cross, four passages on axes and is crowned with an octagonal structure in the shape of a tower with a cross and glazed sections. It is made of iron (the structural elements, including rails are marked with Cyrillic letters: О. Г. З. IX. 95. Р. У. Ж. Д. 1895 VIII-IX) and cast iron (decorations), in a riveted frame structure. All the gate façades are uniform. The entrances are framed with pointed arcades, above which there are extended finials consisting of: cast iron plates (castings) covered with figural-ornamental decoration (including the motif of a worker and a miner holding a shield of arms with crossed hammers), corner pinnacles resembling Gothic pinnacles and tracery patterns from metal bars at the top. The sides of the cross arms are filled with openwork pointed-arch windows.

The site is open to the public. The interiors may be explored upon prior arrangement with the parish priest.

Łukasz Piotr Młynarski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Kielce, 08.08.2017. 

Bibliography

• Record sheet. Zespól kościelny - brama żelazna. Szewna, prepared by K. Rosowska, Kielce 1985, Archive of the Voivodeship Monuments Protection Office in Kielce and Archive of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Warsaw.
• http://erasmusminerator.blogspot.com/2014/11/, (accessed 07.02.2016)
• Wiśniewski J., Dekanat opatowski, Radom 1907.