St Roch's Church in Głuchołazy

The little Church of St Roch in Głuchołazy is a memorial to the great plague epidemic that struck the town in the mid-14th century. A chapel was built here around 1350, and the present small church dates from 1626–1627. Its patron, St Roch, has been invoked for centuries as a protector against plague, and the interior refers directly to that tragedy.

History

The church was built at the personal expense of the local parish priest and consecrated in the summer of 1628. It was a cemetery church: until 1866 it was surrounded by a graveyard where parishioners from the villages, mostly farmers, were buried. In the 19th century the building fell into ruin, and in 1860 it was restored by the parish priest, Father Bulang. Today it is a chapel of ease of St Lawrence's parish.

What to see

The building has Gothic features: a three-sided apse, a small wooden turret with a bell, pointed windows and a pointed doorway. The highlight is the late Renaissance altar of 1625, crowned with a pelican, a symbol of Christ. In an octagonal panel painting by Schonfelder, the Christ Child in his mother's arms holds back the punishing hand of God wielding lightning and a hammer. The lower part of the altar resembles a sarcophagus with Latin inscriptions and a relief of the Bronze Serpent, which in the Bible turned away disease from the Israelites.

Did you know?

• The side altars hold reliefs of St Isidore at prayer, dated 1634 – the patron saint of farmers – and of the Crowning with Thorns, dated 1680.
• Baroque statues of St Roch and St Sebastian stand on either side of the main altar, with later portraits of both saints in medallions.
• The top of the altar is decorated with medallions of St Lawrence, Our Lady of Sorrows and St John the Evangelist.

Tripto tip

The church stands on ul. Marii Skłodowskiej-Curie. Fifteen minutes is enough to look at the exterior and doorway; to see inside, ask St Lawrence's parish in advance, as no regular opening hours are published. It is easy to combine with the Baroque parish church of St Lawrence on the market square.