St Andrew's Church in Brok

In the Renaissance frescoes of the church in Brok, ordinary 16th-century people stand alongside biblical patriarchs and kings: men and women in the dress of the time, priests and deacons with books and candlesticks. Hidden under plaster for centuries, these paintings are among the most important examples of 16th-century monumental wall painting in Mazovia. St Andrew's Church itself, founded by the bishops of Płock on the Bug River, is regarded as the first example of Renaissance architecture in northern Mazovia.

The bishops' church

From the 13th century Brok was a stronghold, and later a residential town of the bishops of Płock. The brick church was begun in 1544 by Bishop Samuel Maciejowski and completed before 1560 by his successor, Bishop Andrzej Noskowski. The design is attributed to Giovanni Battista Venetus, an Italian builder who settled in Płock. The church belongs to the so-called Pułtusk group, churches of similar design created by Venetus and his workshop.

The overall shape is Gothic, but the gable, the nave with the chancel and the vault are Renaissance. The chancel ends in a semicircular apse, and the nave is covered by a barrel vault with a regular grid of circular coffers. A north chapel was added in the 17th century, and a south chapel and a neo-Gothic porch in the 19th century. The church was added to the heritage register in 1958, and in 2003 the parish won an award in the "Well-Kept Monument" competition run by the national heritage authority.

Frescoes rediscovered under plaster

After damage during the Great Northern War, the vaults and walls were plastered over during repairs in 1744. The Renaissance paintings were only uncovered in 1971, and another section of frescoes in the nave was found in 1998. They are attributed to Wojciech of Warsaw and dated to around 1560–1569. In the arched niches at the base of the vaults you can see Christ as Salvator Mundi, facing whom stand Moses, Aaron, Joshua, Saul, David, Solomon and Samson, together with realistically painted contemporaries.

What to look for

• The palace gate plaque – a marble slab from 1716 that once adorned the gate of the bishops' castle. Its Latin inscription says that anyone who had stood before this gate earlier, among the still-smouldering ashes, would have seen this palace, the town and the villages.
• The high altar of St Andrew from 1742, 7 m tall, and the Baroque Rosary altar from 1744.
• A chalice-shaped font dated 1682, 2.1 m tall.
• The organ by Adolf Homan from 1907, overhauled in 2004 and 2018.
• A Baroque tombstone of Elżbieta Radzimińska with the Korab coat of arms in St Anne's chapel.

Tripto tip

This is a working parish church, so the easiest way to see the interior is around Mass or by contacting the parish in advance. Do not sightsee or take photos during services. Allow 30–45 minutes, and look up: the most interesting frescoes are high up, at the base of the vaults. Afterwards walk down to the Bug and the remains of the Płock bishops' castle at the mouth of the little Turka river. Bishop Henryk Firlej began building the summer residence in 1607; the palace burned in 1831, and only fragments of a tower and the foundations survive.