Church of the Holy Name of Mary in Gaszyn

Hidden in a clump of old trees beside a stream stands a larch-wood church that is barely visible from national road 45. The Church of the Holy Name of Mary in Gaszyn, 3 km south of Wieluń, belongs to the Wieluń group of 16th-century wooden churches, one of the most valuable ensembles of timber church architecture in Poland. Its present dedication is a souvenir of the Relief of Vienna in 1683.

History: St Sigismund's chapel and a thank-offering for Vienna

The village was first recorded in 1323, and its history has always been tied to Wieluń and the old royal road to Bolesławiec. The church was built in the 16th century of larch wood, founded by a member of the Gaszyński-Wierzchleyski family whose name is unknown. Until 1683 it was a chapel of St Sigismund, King and Martyr, owned by the Bernardine nuns of Wieluń. That year it was raised to a filial church and rededicated. According to the parish, this was linked to the gift of an altar and a painting of the Virgin and Child as a thank-offering for a safe return from the Relief of Vienna, the battle in which King John III Sobieski broke the Ottoman siege. The last lord of the Gaszyński line, Jakub Gaszyński, died in 1672. The independent parish was only established on 6 May 1987.

What to see

• The archaic shape: a rectangular nave, a narrower and shorter chancel with a flat east wall, and a single shingled roof with one ridge over both.
• Log construction: walls made of trunks split lengthwise and joined at the corners with carpentry locks, standing on a brick base.
• The bell tower with a post frame, probably from the 17th century.
• The high altar from the second half of the 17th century with the Virgin and Child, Saints Margaret and Cecilia, and St Lawrence at the top.
• Statues of the Polish bishop saints Stanislaus, with the resurrected Piotrowin, and Adalbert, from the 18th century.
• Jakub Gaszyński's coffin plate from 1672, an example of the Polish nobility's "Sarmatian" culture, which lay in the ground by the church for three centuries.

Interesting facts

During the 1970–1974 renovation the organ loft, pulpit and two Baroque side altars were removed, so the interior is plainer than it was half a century ago. Early on 1 September 1939 one of the first bombs of the Second World War hit farm buildings in Gaszyn; next to the church are the graves of Polish soldiers killed in September 1939 and a plaque to 20 local victims of the war. In 2020 the village became famous across Poland for #GaszynChallenge, a fundraising campaign for a boy with SMA started by Marcin Topór of the local volunteer fire brigade.

Tripto tip

The church is at ul. Kościelna 10 and is an active parish church with no fixed visiting hours. The interior is easiest to see at a service or after contacting the parish office, open Tuesday to Friday before Mass. Allow 20–30 minutes inside and out. Gaszyn combines well with other Wieluń-type wooden churches, for example in Kadłub, Grębień, Popowice, Wierzbie and Skomlin.