Wooden Church of St Michael the Archangel, Księży Las

On a cemetery hill in Księży Las, between Pyskowice and Tarnowskie Góry, stands the wooden Church of St Michael the Archangel, begun in 1497–1498. It is one of the oldest wooden churches in Upper Silesia – a late-Gothic building with shingled walls, a steep roof and covered arcades, which has survived the Reformation, wars and many repairs.

History: five centuries on the hill

The village is first recorded in 1302, when the pope placed it under the care of the Cistercians of Jemielnica. The first church was built in the 14th century and was already a parish church by 1447. Work on the present church began in 1497–1498, funded by the estate owner Jan Sławecki; a church inspection report of 1687 dates its construction to 1499. From 1570 to 1629 it served as a Protestant church.

The building changed over time: a chapel was added on the south side in the 18th century, and a brick porch at the front in 1905. The worst damage came in the Second World War – the church was thoroughly restored in 1955, and the latest conservation work took place in 1999–2001. In 2020 the turret regained its original cap and the roof shingles were replaced.

What to see

• Log construction on a stone and brick base, with the medieval layout of two parts – nave and chancel – each on a nearly square plan.
• Covered arcades ("soboty") along the north wall, resting on eight posts. According to a report of 1678 they once ran around the whole church.
• The brick west façade with corner buttresses, contrasting with the other walls clad in shingles.
• The rood beam inscribed "Consummatum est", dividing the nave from the chancel.
• A neo-Baroque high altar from the first half of the 19th century with a painting of St Michael, and two late-Baroque side altars – one with the Crucifixion framed in acanthus leaves, the other with St Catherine of Alexandria.

Interesting facts

An inspection report from 1720 mentions a free-standing bell tower, which has not survived – the bells now hang in a brick annex. In the gallery stands a small six-stop organ by Ernst Kurzer, an organ builder from Gliwice, dating from the early 20th century. A small-leaved lime tree, a protected natural monument with a girth of about 3.5 m, once grew by the church; a storm brought it down on 15 August 2010.

Tripto tip

The church is a filial church of the parish in Kamieniec and has no regular opening hours – Poland's National Heritage Board describes it as a monument that can be viewed from outside. Look at it from the north, where the arcades and shingled walls best show its medieval character. Allow 20–30 minutes for a walk around the church and cemetery. Księży Las is on the Wooden Architecture Route of the Silesian Voivodeship, so it fits easily into a tour of the region's wooden churches.