The church has preserved valuable early and late Baroque furnishings from the 17th and 18th centuries, including an early Baroque altarpiece from 1637 with a painting of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the workshop of the well-known Gdańsk painter Herman Han. A painting of Our Lady of the Rosary of the same provenance has also been preserved in one of the late Baroque side altars. The vaults of the church are decorated with Regency-style polychrome from the first quarter of the 18th century made by Antoni Pallme from Zbąszyń. Also noteworthy is the early Baroque sarcophagus of Jan Kostka, who died in 1624, probably made by Jakub Kanadej, a Poznań tin caster.

History of the structure/dating of construction phases

In the early Middle Ages Wieleń was one of the most important towns on the border between Wielkopolska and Pomerania, located at the former route from Poznań to Szczecin. It was first mentioned by Gall Anonim in 1108 and from 1213 it was the seat of the castellany. Before 1458, a town was founded to the south of the castle (some scholars say before 1350). Until the beginning of the 16th century, the castle and the landed estates constituted royal property that was granted as a fief to meritorious knightly families, e.g. the Nałęcz family from Szamotuły and the Górka family of the Łodzia coat of arms. In 1515, King Sigismund I the Old granted the town and the castle to Łukasz Górka, castellan of Poznań and starost general of Wielkopolska, later the Governor Poznań, in exchange for Pobiedziska. Wieleń remained in the hands of the Górka family until 1592 and then it was owned by the related Czarnkowski family of the Nałęcz coat of arms. In the years 1631-1651 the owners of Wieleń were the Kostka family, later - the Grudziński family (until 1683), the Opaliński family (until 1699) and finally - the Sapieha family (in 1699-1789). In 1789 Joanna Sapieżyna, the then owner of the Wieleń estate, sold it to the von Blankensee family. In the years 1855-1945, it belonged to the von Schulenberg family.

The parish in Wieleń, according to unconfirmed sources, was erected in the 13th century. In the Middle Ages two churches existed here: an earlier castle church (chapel?) and a small, wooden church in the settlement, mentioned in the 16th century - St. Adalbert’s Church. This church was located on the same site as the brick church that has been preserved to this day. In the 16th century, when the town was owned by the Górka family, who supported the Reformation, the temple was taken over by Protestants. The building was returned to Catholics in the times of Jan Czarnkowski, who himself was a Catholic.

In 1615 the wooden building was demolished. Thanks to the efforts of the owner of Wieleń, Zofia Czarnkowska nee Herburt, a new brick church was erected. In 1632 the temple was consecrated by the suffragan of Poznań, Bishop Jan Bajkowski, and was given the name of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel. The church was renovated in the postwar period, e.g. in 1950 (new exterior plaster, roofing work) and in 1977-78.

Description of the structure

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael is located in the centre of the city, on Kościuszko Street, on its eastern side, at the intersection with Kasprzaka Street. The area of the former church cemetery surrounding the temple is fenced with a brick wall with posts, between which there are metal bars. The main gate and two wickets, framed by a pair of posts, lead to the church grounds from the street corner, while a side gate and a wicket, framed by brick posts, lead to the church grounds from the south. On the west side in front of the church there is a newer bell tower of concrete construction. On the east side behind the church there is a timber-framed building of the former organist’s house from the 1st half of the 19th century.

The early Baroque, single-nave church was built on a rectangular floor plan with a narrower, semi-circularly closed chancel on the eastern side. The nave is four-bay. To the north of the chancel there is a rectangular sacristy, above which there is a patron’s lodge, from the south - a square chapel of the Kostka family of St. Stanisław Kostka. On the south side of the nave there is a small, rectangular porch, on the north side - a row of annexes open to the interior, containing stairs to the lodge, the Chapel of the Heart of Jesus and stairs to the choir gallery. The nave and a bit lower chancel are covered with gable roofs, over the Kostka family chapel - a tented roof with a new lantern (formerly domed), over the sacristy - a tented roof. Shed roofs cover the remaining annexes.

The church is a brick building, its walls are plastered. The roof of the nave and the roofs of the annexes on its northern side were covered with ceramic tiles; the roofs of the chancel, the Kostka family chapel, the sacristy and the southern porch - with metal sheets. The nave and chancel are covered with barrel vaults with lunettes, the Kostka family chapel - with an elliptic cupola ceiling on pendentives, in the sacristy and lodge - a double barrel vault, in the annexes on the northern side - with barrel vaults.

The church elevations are topped with profiled cornices. The walls of the chancel, the southern wall of the nave, and the corners of the façade are framed by stepped buttresses. The slender windows are topped with semicircular arches. In the façade there is a semicircular main entrance on the axis, and an inscription “In maiorem Dei Gloriam” above it. The façade is crowned with a triangular gable with an oval window. In the southern elevation there is a semicircular side entrance. In the southern elevation of the Kostka family chapel there is a segmental window, above it - a round window.

Inside the church the walls are segmented with Tuscan pilasters carrying sections of the entablature. The chancel opens into the nave with a wide, semicircular rood arch, supported by wall pillars. On the south side of the chancel, the Kostka family chapel, raised above the church level, opens to the nave with a semicircular arcade. In the remaining walls of the chapel - shallow, semicircular recesses. In the corners - pilasters supporting the entablature. Under the chapel, there is a barrel vaulted burial crypt. An organ gallery supported by three arcades is built into the west side of the nave.

The interior of the church was decorated with a Regency-style polychrome, made in the first quarter of the 18th century by Antoni Pallme of Zbąszyń. The painting on the vault of the chancel shows the scene of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whereas the vault of the nave features the Adoration of the Holy Trinity by All Saints. On the vault of the Kostka family chapel, there is a faintly legible representation of the Apotheosis of St. Stanisław Kostka.

The furnishing of the church comes mostly from the 17th and 18th century. The early Baroque main altar was founded by the parish priest Łukasz Kliński in 1637. The altar was decorated with rich carved ornaments with auricular and cartilage motifs. In its central field there is an image of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary from the workshop of Herman Han, a well-known painter from Gdańsk. On both sides of the painting, in the niches between the columns, there are sculptures of St. Adalbert and St. Stanislaus; in the finial - a relief of the Coronation of Mary and sculptures of St. Michael the Archangel and angels, as well as St. Elisabeth and St. Hedwig. Noteworthy are also two late Baroque side altars situated at the rood arch from the 1st quarter of the 18th century. In the northern altar there is a painting of Virgin Mary of the Rosary from Herman Han’s workshop, in the southern altar there is a late Renaissance painting of the Virgin Mary and Child with St. Anne from the 2nd half of the 16th century. In the Kostka family chapel there is a late Baroque altar from the first quarter of the 18th century, formed from acanthus scrolls, with the sculptures of St. John the Baptist and John the Evangelist and angels. A late-Renaissance pulpit from about 1640, decorated with figures of Christ and the apostles on a richly cut sill, a late-Baroque baptismal font and a tin sarcophagus of Jan Kostka (died 1624), probably made by Jakub Kanadej, a Poznań tin caster, decorated with free-standing figures of angels, coat-of-arms cartouches and a relief of Ecclesia have also been preserved.

Visitor access. The church can be visited both from the outside and inside. More information on the parish and the Holy Mass schedule can be found on the website of the Poznań archdiocese at: www.archpoznan.pl

Author of the note: Krzysztof Jodłowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 07-07-2017

Bibliography

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