The church belongs to a small group of Classicist churches built on a circular plan. They are reminiscent of the Roman Pantheon and correspond directly to the palace chapel in Puławy. 

History

The village of Żyrzyn was owned by nobility and it was first mentioned in historical records at the beginning of 15th century. At first, it belonged to the Zerzyński family, then to the Męciński family. After 1620, Wojciech Męciński joined the Jesuit Order and transferred the inherited property to the convent. The first temple here was a wooden chapel, built in 1612 with funds donated by Felicja Męcińska. It was later enlarged by the Jesuits. The village belonged to the parish in Gołębie. In 1675, it became an independent parish. The first wooden church of St. Andrew the Apostle existed on the site now occupied by the tomb chapel of the Wessel family. In 1804, priest Paweł Krajewski, with the support of the then heir, Ignacy Rudnicki, undertook the construction of the present-day church according to a design created by Christian Piotr Aigner – a well-known architect of the Classicist era.

The works were discontinued due to lack of funds and they were not resumed until 1839-1848, when Maria and Adam Wessel became the owners of the Żyrzyn estate. With their active support, the temple was finally completed. The works were conducted by Karol Kremer, an architect from Krakow, who modified the original design significantly. In 1892, the church underwent a full-scale renovation. In 1913, the next owners of the property – Zofia and Stanisław Wessel provided funds for stained glass windows, which were produced by the Studio of Władysław Skibiński in Warsaw. The interior was covered with a polychrome painted by Antoni Procajłowicz and Celestyn Miklasiński. 

Around 1850, the church was encircled with a fence (its front part was later remodelled). In 1869, a bell tower was built.

The church was damaged in 1944-1945 and since then has undergone several restorations, including the one in 1954. The renovation carried out in 2016 covered all component parts of the complex.

Description

The church complex is situated on the eastern edge of the village, in the vicinity of a manor and a park complex. Late Classicist church. The church has the form of a rotunda. From the south, it is adjoined by a rectangular, lower sacristy with a small treasury on its first storey. From the north, it is adjoined by an impressive church porch with a wall portico – equal in height to the rotunda. The church is made of bricks, covered with plaster. The rotunda is topped with a flattened dome resting on a tholobate. In the vestibule and the sacristy, there are barrel vaults. The dome has sheet metal cladding and is topped with an openwork lantern. The church porch and the sacristy are covered with gable roofs. In the front (northern) elevation, there is a church porch preceded by a four-column wall portico, topped with a triangular pediment. All elevations are adorned with delicate horizontal rusticated stonework and topped with a simplified entablature.

The tholobate is smooth and finished with a profiled cornice, with round windows fitted in its walls. The window openings in the rotunda and on the first storey of the church porch are high and topped with a semi-circular arches. The remaining window openings are rectangular. Inside, the walls are divided by arcaded niches with windows and neo-Baroque altars. The pillars between the arcades are surmounted by pairs of lesenes. Above, there is a richly profiled cornice under the tholobate. The choir gallery has a semi-circular balustered parapet. The walls and the dome are covered with a polychrome with Art Nouveau motifs. On the walls, there are epitaphs of members of the Wessel family. The stained-glass windows next to the altar contain images of St. Sophia and St. Stanislaus.

The bell tower is built on a rectangular floor plan. It is made of bricks, has two storeys and is covered with a gable roof. The elevations are uniaxial. They are rusticated in their lower section, whereas the upper section is surmounted by Tuscan pilasters. The bell openings are topped with a semi-circular arch enclosed by cornices.

The brick fence, buttressed from outside, comprises four shrines. The front walls of the Classicist shrines are surmounted by pilasters which carry the weight of the entablature. Over the entablature, there is a low attic wall with a cross. In the middle, there are conch-vaulted niches surmounted by a semi-circular arcade with a profiled archivolt

Next to the church, there is the organist's house from the end of the 19th century and a clergy house from 1908 (not entered in the register of monuments). In the square in front of the church, there is a fluted column with a cross from 1875. Approximately 130 m to the south-east of the church, there is a neo-Gothic tomb chapel of the Wessel family from 1851.

The heritage site is accessible upon prior arrangement by telephone.

compiled by Bożena Stanek-Lebioda, National Institute of Cultural Heritage, Branch Office in Lublin, 21-03-2017

Bibliography

• Bęczkowska U., Karol Kremer i krakowski urząd budownictwa w latach 1837-1860, Krakow 2010, pp. 62, 127.
• Jaroszewski T. S., Chrystian Piotr Aigner architekt warszawskiego klasycyzmu, Warsaw 1970, pp. 145-146.
• Robak M., Żyrzyn i okolice. Zarys dziejów, Lublin 1997, passim.
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