Church of Saints Peter and Paul, Tylicz

Tylicz's wooden church is as old as the town's present name. In 1612 Bishop Piotr Tylicki of Kraków granted the settlement town rights again, named it after himself and funded this church. Inside are Rococo altars, a Baroque organ and wall paintings from 1960, and next door stands a new church where the image of Our Lady of Tylicz – a gift from the same bishop – is venerated.

History: Bishop Tylicki's church

A settlement called Miastko existed here in the Middle Ages; Casimir the Great granted it town rights in 1363, and in 1391 it passed to the bishops of Kraków. After decline in the 16th century, Bishop Piotr Tylicki refounded the town in 1612, and it has been called Tylicz ever since. In the same year he funded the Church of Saints Peter and Paul. The coat of arms granted to the town at that time also showed the patron saints: the heads of St Peter and St Paul.

The church is of log construction with horizontally boarded walls and a gabled roof covered with sheet metal. A Baroque turret with a lantern and an onion dome rises above the porch and nave.

What to look for

• The triple-arched entrance portal and the flat ceilings inside.
• Wall paintings from 1960 with ornamental and figurative motifs, by K. Morway and K. Puchała.
• Three Rococo altars from the second half of the 18th century, the side altars with 17th-century St Anne with the Virgin and Child and an 18th-century Veil of Veronica.
• The 18th-century Baroque organ, a Rococo crucifix on the rood beam, the pulpit and the font.
• A brick screen-type bell tower from 1803 to the south-west of the church.

Did you know?

The painting of the Virgin and Child given by Bishop Tylicki in 1612 is attributed to the Netherlandish painter Adriaen Isenbrant. Mary holds Jesus on her right arm, and the Child presses his cheek to hers. The image is venerated in the neighbouring new Church of the Holy Name of Mary, declared the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Tylicz in 2016.

Tripto tip

The church is in the centre of Tylicz and is part of the Wooden Architecture Route. The interior is easiest to see around service times; 20–30 minutes is enough. A few hundred metres away stands the wooden Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian from 1743 – together the two churches show how Polish and Lemko culture met in this area.