History

The village of Wełna was mentioned in written records for the first time in 1352. In the 15th and 16th centuries, it belonged to the Grudziński family, in the 17th century — the Grzymułtowski family, in the 1st half of the 18th century — the Rydzyńskis, in the years 1752-1790 — the Rostworowskis and the Kołaczkowskis, and from 1790 — to the Grabowskis.

The Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, built in 1727, was founded by Castellan Wojciech Rydzyński. It replaced a chapel founded by Michał Grzymułtowski in the early 17th century and destroyed in 1658. The church was renovated in 1930. In the years 1952-1953, the roof wood shingles were replaced and conservation works were carried out on the interior wall paintings. The church underwent full-scale renovations in the 1990s.

Description

The village of Wełna is located in the Rogoźno Commune, 11 km to the north-east of Oborniki, near a road connecting Poznań and Piła. The church complex is situated in the central part of the village, near the intersection of roads leading to Ludomy and Parkowo.

The Baroque church has a wooden log structure. It is oriented towards the east and has a Latin cross floor plan. Its single nave is adjoined by side chapels terminating in flat walls, forming a pseudo-transept, and a smaller and lower chancel, terminating in a semi-hexagon and adjoined by two small sacristies. A tower with a porch at the ground floor level, having a post-and-beam structure, adjoins the nave on the west side. The main body of the church is covered with a two-ridge gable roof with wood shingles, also covering the tower in the nave part, surmounted by a steeple with a lantern with an onion-shaped cupola. Cloister-type walkways, having a closed post-and-plank structure and covered with mono-pitched roofs, run along the nave and the north and south walls of the tower. They can be accessed through doors located at the north-west and south-west corners of the nave.

Inside, there is a ceiling with deep cove moulding above profiled crown moulding running along the walls. The church has a music gallery enclosed with a balustrade, bulging out in the centre and adorned with escutcheons of the Wierzbno-Rydzyński family. It is supported by six piers and connected with the galleries running along both side walls of the nave. The interior walls and the ceilings are decorated with trompe l’œil paintings made by Adam Swach, a Franciscan monk, in the years 1728-1729. They depict persons and scenes related to the cult of the Holy Cross, including the figures of Jesus Christ, Virgin Mary, and Saint Helena on Golgotha, the 12 Apostles and the 4 Evangelists, the Vision of Emperor Constantine the Great, as well as rich plant motifs and inscriptions. The church fittings include Baroque main and side altars dating from 1729-1731, all covered with paintings, choir stalls, confessionals, and two pulpits. To the north-east of the church, in the vast graveyard, covered with trees and enclosed with a wooden fence, there is an open wooden bell tower.

The church can be visited from the outside. Holy Masses: Sunday at 7.30 and 9.00 AM, weekdays at 6.00 PM, holidays falling on weekdays at 8.00 AM and 4.00 PM.

compiled by Tomasz Łuczak, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Poznan, 16-11-2015.

Bibliography

• Katalog zabytków sztuki w Polsce, t. 5, Woj. wielkopolskie, red. Ruszczyńska Teresa, Sławska Aniela, z. 15, Pow. obornicki, opr. Galicka Izabella, Kaczorowska Irena, Sygietyńska Hanna, Warszawa 1965, s. 20-22.
• Kościoły drewniane w Wielkopolsce, red. Mariusz Grzebalski, Poznań 2004, s. 272.
• Wielkopolska. Słownik krajoznawczy, red. Łęcki Włodzimierz, Poznań 2002, s. 384.
• Wełna - kościół filialny pw. Podwyższenia Krzyża Św., Karta ewidencyjna zabytków architektury i budownictwa, oprac. Maria Kępińska, 1983, Archiwum Wielkopolskiego Wojewódzkiego Konserwatora Zabytków w Poznaniu.
• http://kosciolydrewniane.pl - odsłona z listopada 2015 r.