Wooden Church of St John the Baptist in Biskupice

At the western end of the village of Biskupice, on the north side of the road, stands a dark, weatherboarded church with a tall timber-frame tower. The name of the carpenter who built it and the names of its founders can still be read on the rood beam – a rare case of a wooden church that "signed" its own construction.

History: a church signed by its carpenter

According to the inscription on the rood beam, the present Church of St John the Baptist was built in 1626 by the carpenter Hans Hase and founded by Siegmund von Heydebrandt and Georg von Prittwitz-Gaffron. It replaced an earlier church destroyed in 1588. It was a Protestant church and remained in Protestant hands until 1945; today it belongs to the Roman Catholic parish of St John the Baptist in Biskupice (Wołczyn deanery, Diocese of Kalisz). The Heydebrandt family owned the village from the early 16th century until 1714.

Architecture

The church stands on a rectangular plan and is built of horizontal logs (log construction); it is oriented east–west, has a single nave, outer walls clad in boards and a shingle roof. In 1777 a square, three-storey tower with a post construction and a pyramid roof was added on the west side. The porch is built in a post-and-plank technique, but its date is unknown. In 1784 a choir loft and a gallery above the porch were added.

Good to know before you visit

The interior changed a great deal in the 20th century. In the 1930s the nave and chancel were renovated and the ceilings, walls and roof structure strengthened. During a renovation in 1985 the walls were covered with panelling, hiding the faces of the timber beams and the remains of wall paintings, and a stone tombstone slab was removed from the chancel. According to the Byczyna municipality, most of the valuable historic furnishings have not survived – so in Biskupice the main interest is the building itself and its carpentry rather than a rich interior.

Tripto tip

The church is on the Wooden Churches Trail around Byczyna. 15–20 minutes is enough to see the exterior; there are no published opening hours for the interior, so ask the parish about access. In the village you can also see a classicist manor house from around 1800, with the founding plaque of Georg von Paczensky in its pediment, and a 19th-century Jewish cemetery. In nearby Byczyna the town walls survive, with the Polish, German and Sand towers.