St Margaret's Church in Bydlin

St Margaret's Church in Bydlin (Klucze municipality) is a church built in 1865, seat of a parish whose origins go back to the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries. It is worth extending your visit to the cemetery chapel with its 15th-century statue of Our Lady of Consolation, the graves of Polish Legionnaires who fell at Krzywopłoty, and the castle ruins on the hill.

History: from castle to new church

Bydlin is first recorded in 1120, and between 1404 and 1530 it held town rights. The first, wooden St Margaret's Church was built at the end of the 14th century. In 1398 a small castle was erected here to guard the border with Silesia, and it also served a religious purpose. Later owners, including the Firlej family, converted it into an Arian meeting house and then into the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross, which the Swedes burned down in 1655. The present church was built in 1865 on the initiative of the parish priest, Father Andrzej Paprocki, and consecrated in 1885 by the Bishop of Kielce, Tomasz Teofil Kuliński.

What to see inside

The interior holds three Baroque altars. The high altar is adorned with a statue of the Virgin and Child, with a painting of St Margaret serving as a sliding cover. The side altars are dedicated to the Ascension and to St Isidore. The most valuable pieces include a marble baptismal font from 1707, a painting of St Joseph, a Baroque monstrance and an organ from the early 20th century.

Chapel and cemetery below the castle hill

In the parish cemetery at the foot of the castle hill stands the stone Chapel of Our Lady of Consolation. It was built in the 18th century on the site of a former hermitage, and in 1880–1884 Father Paprocki enlarged it; he is buried in its crypt. The revered polychrome statue of the Virgin and Child dates from the 15th century, and the parish register of 1764 records miracles attributed to it. The same cemetery holds 46 Legionnaires of Józef Piłsudski who fell on 18 November 1914 in the Battle of Krzywopłoty.

Tripto tips

• Allow about an hour for the church, the chapel and the cemetery with the Legionnaires' graves. The interiors are easiest to see around Mass times, and the parish feast falls on the Sunday before 20 July.
• From the cemetery it is a short walk up the hill to the ruins of the castle that was later rebuilt as a church.
• Bydlin lies in the Jurassic part of Klucze municipality, so the day combines easily with the Błędów Desert or other castles of the Polish Jura.