St Andrew the Apostle Church in Gilowice

The wooden Church of St Andrew the Apostle in Gilowice has moved house: it was built in the neighbouring village of Rychwałd, and in the mid-18th century it was taken apart and reassembled in the next village. Inside you will find a stone baptismal font from 1440 bearing the oldest surviving depiction of the Korczak coat of arms, and a Gothic figure of the Virgin and Child from the 14th century. The church lies on the Wooden Architecture Route of the Silesian Voivodeship.

History: a church that changed address

The exact date of construction is unknown. As early as the 1470s the chronicler Jan Długosz mentioned a parish church in Rychwałd in his "Liber beneficiorum", and according to the municipal history the parish there was founded in 1475 by Piotr Komorowski, then lord of these lands. The present wooden church was probably built in the first half of the 16th century – its consecration was recorded in 1547. In 1641, at the initiative of parish priest Wojciech Mazurkiewicz, the Żywiec carpenter Jerzy Wiśnicki added the tower.

When a new masonry church was built in Rychwałd, the wooden one was moved to Gilowice – sources give 1756 or 1757. It was a two-way swap: Gilowice's older, smaller church was dismantled and its timber used to build the Chapel of the Sacred Heart in Rychwałd. In 1895 Jan and Wojciech Szwed from Pewel Mała created the false vaults inside, and in 1933–1934 the nave was extended from 9.7 to 14.7 m, the Chapel of the Sacred Heart was added and the soboty were restored to their original form.

What to see

• The building – an east-facing church of log construction, roofed with wooden shingles, with a hexagonal bell turret topped by an onion dome.
• The 1641 tower of post construction, with an overhanging belfry and a slender pyramid spire with a broken pitch.
• The soboty – open, roofed arcades running around the church, altered in 1901 and 1912 and restored to their original form in the 1930s.
• The 1440 font with the Korczak arms used by the Komorowski family, owners of the Żywiec region before the estates passed to the royal Vasa family.
• The Gothic figure of the Virgin and Child from the third quarter of the 14th century – the most precious item among the Baroque and Neoclassical furnishings.

Recent conservation

The church was part of the diocesan project "Beskid Museum of Wooden Sacred Architecture", which restored six wooden churches of the Bielsko-Żywiec diocese, including those in Polanka Wielka, Grojec and Łodygowice. In Gilowice the shingle roof was replaced, the boarding of the walls and tower and the historic fence were renewed, and conservators restored the original colours of the paintings, panelling and door frames and conserved the font.

Tripto tip

This is a working parish church – you can see the exterior at any time, while the interior is easiest to visit around services or by arrangement with the parish. Allow 20–30 minutes for the church and its surroundings. Be sure to visit neighbouring Rychwałd, where the church came from – it has the masonry Sanctuary of Our Lady of Rychwałd, and the timber of Gilowice's old church was used there to build the Chapel of the Sacred Heart.