The church dating from the early 16th century is an example of late Gothic wooden sacred architecture.

History

Uszyce were first mentioned in 1386. The newly built wooden church was consecrated in 1517. During visitation in 1679, researchers recorded its poor technical condition, which can be associated with a small number of Catholics in the village: only three of 18 nobles were Catholic. At that time, the village belonged to the Frankenberg family of Proślice; in 1729 it was owned by Adam Ossorowski, and in the interwar period by the Protatus family. In the late 17th century, the nave was extended by the addition of a tower and the church underwent renovation. In 1970, the foundation and roof cladding, among others, were replaced.

Description

The church is located in the centre of the village, on the east side of the bend of a road. It is oriented towards the east and surrounded by the area of the former cemetery and old trees, including lime, oak and chestnut trees. The church consists of a nave in the shape similar to a square and a chancel in a similar shape, which is closed off on three sides. To the north, in the corner between the nave and the chancel, there is a rectangular sacristy with a founders' gallery on the upper storey; the nave adjoins a square porch to the south and a tower to the west. The gallery can be accessed via an external entrance located in the eastern wall, which can be accessed by roofed half-turn stairs with a landing and a balustrade.

The four-storey tower with walls slightly tapering towards the top is covered with a tented roof, the sacristy with the gallery with a hip roof, the porch and the nave with gable roofs, and the lower chancel with a gable roof with three planes over the end section. At the eastern edge of the nave, there is a hexagonal steeple turret covered with a bulbous cupola with a lantern surmounted by a ball and cross. The whole makes a varied and proportionate body.

The church was built as a log structure, reinforced with clamps, and the tower, which is unrelated to them in terms of structure, as a post-and-beam structure with stiffeners. The roofs are clad with wood shingles, the cupola over the turret with sheet metal, and the façades are covered with vertically positioned weatherboards. The window and door openings are enclosed in beam frames, with lintels cut out in the shape of an arch in the lower part. The window openings vary in shape; most of the windows are topped with a flat arch; the chancel features two round windows, while the sacristy is pierced by rectangular windows filled with barbed forged grid.

Inside, the chancel is covered with a false barrel vault with flat ceiling sections; the remaining ceilings are flat; the ceiling over the nave features strips forming faux coffers. The ceilings are covered with ornamental floral murals. A simple choir with a Baroque pipe organ casing is supported by two pillars. The rood beam is straight, with cutouts in the upper part and the Crucifixion group from the 17th century. The fixtures and fittings include, among others, an architectural main altar from around mid-17th century and a more modest architectural side altar from the 17th century. Next to the side walls, there are two altar reredoses: southern one from the mid-17th century, which is two-storey, with cut out decoration in the auricular style and paintings; and a northern regency one in an oval shape. The church bell was cast in the Jakub Götz's workshop in Wrocław in 1600.

The structure can be viewed from the outside; the interior is open to visitors during services or by arrangement with the parish priest.

compiled by Ewa Kalbarczyk-Klak, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Opole, 23-09-2014.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, vol. VII, issue 10, T. Chrzanowski and M. Kornecki (eds.), pp. 29-30.
• Emmerling D., Wierzgoń A., Opolskie kościoły drewniane, Opole 2006, p. 73.
• Lutsch Hans, Verzeichnis der Kunstdenkmäler der Provinz Schlesien, Bd. 4: Die Kunstdenkmäler des Reg.-Bezirks Oppeln, Tl. 2, Breslau 1894, 444 p. 257.
• Dienwiebel H., Oberschlesische Schrottholzkirchen, Breslau 1938.