The exterior form of the church and arrangement of the interior are modelled upon the 17th-century brick architecture.

History

The first church was founded in the 1st quarter of the 15th century by the nobility of the Trzaska and Cholewa coat of arms. The second church was erected in the same place in 1603. The current one, dating from 1696, was erected upon commission of Andrzej Jabłonowski, sword-bearer of Nur, by efforts of the then parish priest Jan Jakub Mamiński. Consecrated before 1721 by the bishop of Lutsk, Joachim Przebendowski. In the years 1754-1767, by efforts of the parish priest Idzi Przebendowski, the interior was enriched with new fittings (the altar complex, pulpit, baptismal font, organ, confessionals). In 1762, a crypt was built below the nave, at the expense of Franciszek Obniski, a cup-bearer of Halicz. The church underwent multiple renovations, e.g. in 1780 and in 1790 and in the years 1872-1886 (adding a sacristy in the south; the old sacristy (northern) was transformed into a porch; a tower was erected over the facade). In the late 19th century, the shape of window openings was changed into semicircular arches. In 1928, Konstanty Czarniecki of Vilnius carried out the interior and equipment renovation. The tower over the facade was demolished in 1961. In 1975, interior walls were painted, weatherboarding on the facade was changed and altars underwent preservation works.

Description

The church is located in the middle of the village, within the church cemetery surrounded by a wall. There is a wooden bell tower within the cemetery as well as a number of graves of historical and artistic value.

The oriented church, of the Baroque period, consists of a nave corpus on a rectangular floor plan and an elongated rectangular chancel terminated semi-hexagonally and flanked by two auxiliary rooms: porch and sacristy. A nave corpus and presbytery are covered with a common gable roof, transforming into a three-sloped roof over the presbytery termination; auxiliary rooms covered with shed roofs. A roof ridge of the corpus crowned with a quadrangular steeple surrounded by a profiled cornice, covered with a tent roof.

The church is made of log timber and it stands on a foundation made of fieldstone; weatherboarded, with walls braced by studs. Roofs and steeple are sheathed with sheet metal. Window and door frames made of wood; floor and ceiling - wooden.

Façades are covered with vertical weatherboards; the façade gable vertically weatherboarded with board and batten siding (herringbone weatherboarding and a niche for a shrine in its central field), margined by corrugated bargeboards. A flat facade is partitioned by lesenes that transform themselves into low pinnacles over the gable. The window openings are rectangular, with semicircular arches.

The interior is covered with a flat ceiling, partitioned into naves by two pairs of supporting pillars that support pseudoarcades with segmental arches. A choir gallery in the form of a balcony with a protruding central part, supported by four pillars, is located in the western part of the nave. Inside, there is an altar complex from the mid-18th century (the main altar and two side altars in a chancel of the Baroque period, two regent altars in side naves), Baroque pulpit and baptismal font in the form of an altar of 1765, a pipe organ casing and two confessionals from the mid-18th century. The side altar includes a 17th-century painting of the Mother of God in the Hodigitria type; a Renaissance painting of St Stanislaus the Bishop from the second half of the 16th century.

Accessible structure.

compiled by Aneta Kułak, Regional Branch of the National Heritage Board of Poland in Bialystok, 02-10-2014.

Bibliography

• Diecezja Drohiczyńska. Spis parafii i duchowieństwa 2004, Drohiczyn 2004, s. 232-325.
• Katalog Zabytków Sztuki w Polsce, t. 9: Województwo łomżyńskie, z. 2: Ciechanowiec, Zambrów, Wysokie Mazowieckie i okolice, Warszawa 1986, s. 81-87, il. 61, 62, 68.