St Bartholomew's Church in Jerzmanowice

The church in Jerzmanowice has bells older than the building itself. One was cast in 1545, in the reign of King Sigismund the Old, the other in 1548. They survived because during the First World War parishioners buried them in the ground before the Austrian authorities could requisition them. The present Neoclassical Church of St Bartholomew the Apostle, meanwhile, took so long to complete that 57 years passed between the start of construction and its consecration.

History: a royal foundation

The parish existed by 1338. A surviving copy of the foundation charter credits King Casimir the Great with founding the wooden church – although its mention of the village of Łazy, which joined the parish only in 1602, shows that the document was edited later. The church measured roughly 20 × 6 m and was enough for one of the smallest parishes: in the 15th century it had about 270 faithful. During the Reformation, Szafraniec, owner of nearby Pieskowa Skała castle, turned the local churches into Calvinist chapels, so Catholics from neighbouring parishes came to Mass in Jerzmanowice.

The dilapidated wooden church was pulled down in 1826, and construction of a masonry one began in 1827. The village leaseholder Chrzanowski supported the work, which was led by a builder named Kowalski from Kielce; the church was remodelled in 1876. Bishop Tomasz Kuliński of Kielce consecrated it on 21 June 1884. In 1851 the library of the Skała deanery, several hundred historic volumes, was moved here.

What to see

• The façade, inspired by Warsaw Palladianism: giant pilasters, a triangular pediment and an attic.
• The painting of the Virgin Mary and St Bartholomew in the high altar, by Bolesław Rutkowski, 1911.
• Baroque-Neoclassical side altars and the font from the old church, restored in 2004–2006.
• The wall paintings designed by Janusz Łęgowski. The earlier murals by Professor Jerzy Nowosielski, a leading Polish modernist, were transferred by the Kraków Academy of Fine Arts in 2000.
• A Lourdes grotto from 1904 to the right of the church, marking 50 years since the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

Did you know?

The 1548 bell bears a medallion of St Bartholomew and a Latin inscription that the municipality translates as "The spirit is to us like poetry; let it tell you that God is here". In 1789 the parish had 952 inhabitants; today it has around 3,000 faithful. The organ dates from the 19th century and is attributed to Antoni Sapalski.

Tripto tip

It is a working parish, so look inside before or after Mass. In the same village stands the Baroque Chapel of St John the Baptist, consecrated in 1688 – a former hospital church for the poor, founded by Jan Sroczyński, a Kraków burgher from a Jerzmanowice peasant family. Allow about an hour for both. Pair the visit with Pieskowa Skała castle – its former owner Szafraniec, as you have seen, played a part in this parish's story too.