The temple was built on the site of one of the oldest churches in the former diocese of Poznań. After the church was built, the churchyard was surrounded by a brick fence with gates. The brick rectory dates back to the 1830s, and the stone cowshed was built after 1870.

History of the structure/dating of construction phases

In the Middle Ages, Wilkowyja was a castellan hillfort. In the 14th-15th centuries, it was the property of the Zaremba family from Żerków, and it became a part of the Radlin estate. In the second half of the 15th century the village belonged to the Bniński family, and then to the Radliński, Opaliński and Włoszakowicki families. The last of the Opaliński family was Piotr, the Governor of Łęczyca, the starost of Międzyrzec. His daughter Ludwika married Jan Kazimierz Sapieha in 1700. The indebted Koźminskie and Radlińskie estates were handed over to count Adolf Kalkreuth in 1791. They were bought from the Prussian government in 1840 by Władysław Radoliński, chamberlain of the Prussian king. It is to him that we owe the construction of the neo-Gothic church in 1855 in place of the previously existing wooden one. The parish in Wilkowyja is one of the oldest in the former diocese of Poznań. Visitation records from the Middle Ages show that the church bore the name of St. Adalbert and St. Hedwig. There was a Brotherhood of Mercy at the church, and from 1744 the Brotherhood of St. Barbara. In 1659 the Opaliński family built a new wooden temple in the place of the destroyed one, which was consecrated by Wojciech Tolibowski, bishop of Poznań.

The brick church was consecrated in 1892 by bishop Likowski. Szymon Mizgalski was the parish priest at that time. After 1870, the rectory, which was built in 1837, was expanded and the church cemetery was fenced with a brick and stone wall with wrought-iron gates, as well as the rectory garden. In the same period the farm buildings were built: a sheepfold, a cowshed and a stable.

In 1964-68 there was a partial replacement of the ceiling beam of the church. The presbytery was rebuilt, altars were changed, new stained-glass windows were made according to the design of Stanisław Powalisz from Poznań and the interior of the church was painted.

Description of the structure

Wilkowyja is a village in the Jarocin commune, located 4 km north-east from Jarocin, on the Lutynia River, by the Jarocin - Żerków road. St. Adalbert’s parish church complex is located in the centre of the village, at the intersection of the roads to Radlin and Żerków. The oriented church is surrounded by a former churchyard fenced with a brick wall on fieldstones foundation with a gate from the west. The rectory garden is adjacent to the south. The rectory itself is located to the south-west of the church. Outbuildings located to the west of the church.

The church is a brick building on a stone foundation with unplastered exterior walls. A one-nave, five-bay church, built on a rectangular floor plan, with a three-sided, two-bay chancel, narrower than the nave, from the east. A small sacristy adjoins the chancel from the south, and a porch with a side entrance to the church adjoins the nave. The body of the church is buttressed, topped with a gable roof, covered with a stepped gable from the west, topped with a ridge turret with a metal spire. The chancel, slightly lower than the nave, is also covered with a gable roof. Similarly, the sacristy and the porch. Roofing with ceramic plain tiles in lace, the tower with copper sheet. The church elevations are symmetrical, articulated with two-stage buttresses, with architectural decoration in the form of under eaves cornices with dentil and stepped frieze and window blendes closed with tracery. In the gable wall, above the entrance, in a niche closed with a pointed-arch, there is a figure of the Virgin Mary with the Child on a corbel decorated with floral motifs. Above the sculpture there is a cartouche with the Radoliński family coat of arms and a steeple with pointed-arch openings. The elevation is topped with four triangular gables decorated with panels in the shape of a trefoil. The corner raised buttresses form decorative pinnacles.

The rectory building is built on the plan of the letter “L” with a column porch in the front, situated asymmetrically. A one-storey building, partly cellared, topped with a gable roof. On the garden side the building has a wooden veranda. The rectory is surrounded by a garden. The cowshed building with stone and brick walls has survived from the farm buildings.

Visitor access. The site is accessible to visitors. Visiting the building is possible by prior arrangement. More information on the parish and the Holy Mass schedule can be found on the parish website.

Author of the note: Teresa Palacz, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 21-11-2017

Bibliography

• Łęcki Wł., Wielkopolska – słownik krajoznawczy, Poznań 2002.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, Ruszczyńska T., Sławska A. (ed.), Vol. 5, z. 5 pow. jarociński, Warsaw 1959.
• Kozierowski S., Szematyzm historyczny ustrojów parafialnych dzisiejszej archidiecezji gnieźnieńskiej, Poznań 1934, pp. 228-229.
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• Nowacki J., Archidiecezja poznańska w granicach historycznych i jej ustrój, Poznań 1964, pp. 401.
• Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Vol. XIII, Warsaw 1894, p. 484.