Church of St Stanislaus and St Anne, Knychówek

In the small village of Knychówek, in the Korczew municipality not far from the Bug River, stands a brick church founded by an aunt of King John III Sobieski. It took 37 years to build, in a style transitional between Gothic and Renaissance, and one of its later patrons was Joanna Kuczyńska, to whom the poet Cyprian Norwid wrote letters and a poem. It makes a good short excursion in southern Podlasie, the historic borderland region of eastern Poland.

History: from the Korczewski wooden church to the Sobieska foundation

The first, wooden church was founded here around 1460 by Stanisław Korczewski, the starost (royal administrator) of Kamieniec, probably together with his mother Kordula. It was consecrated on 26 April 1494. A year earlier, Grand Duke Alexander Jagiellon of Lithuania had settled a dispute over tithes between Korczewski and the parish priest of Drohiczyn in Korczewski's favour.

On 29 October 1631 Krzysztof Wiesiołowski, later Grand Marshal of Lithuania, and his wife Aleksandra Marianna Sobieska, aunt of the future king, founded a brick church. According to the Drohiczyn diocese, Wiesiołowski founded ten more churches in Podlasie and Lithuania. Construction lasted from 1631 to 1668, following a design similar to the old parish church in Białystok. It was only consecrated in 1733 by Józef Olszański, auxiliary bishop of Chełm.

What to look for

• The high altar of 1727 – commissioned by Wiktoryn Kuczyński, castellan of Podlasie, nicknamed "the King of Podlasie", from the Drohiczyn woodcarver Łukasz Piotr Grzegółkowski.
• The apse of the chancel with an image of the Virgin and the dates 966 and 1966 – a reminder of the celebrations of the millennium of Poland's baptism.
• The former "hospital" of 1792–1798 next to the church, founded by Feliks Kuczyński, the last cupbearer of Podlasie; today it houses the curate and organist.
• A bell tower and a three-sided wayside shrine with figures of Christ at the Column, the Virgin Mary and St John of Nepomuk.

Good to know

A great benefactor of the church was Joanna Kuczyńska née Wulfers (1812–1888) of nearby Korczew. Cyprian Norwid, one of Poland's great Romantic poets, wrote her many letters and dedicated the poem "To the Lady of Korczew" to her. During the January Uprising of 1863 against Russian rule, Father Stanisław Brzóska, a priest who became an insurgent general, said Mass in Knychówek while hiding on the Korczew estate.

Tripto tip

This is a working parish church (parish address: Knychówek 6), so the interior is easiest to see just before or after Mass. Allow 20–30 minutes for the church and its surroundings. Combine your visit with neighbouring Korczew, where a Baroque palace was begun in 1734 to a design by the architect Boni, who was then also working for the Radziwiłł family, and the park holds neo-Gothic buildings by Franciszek Jaszczołd, including the little "Siberia" summer palace. Korczew itself lies within the Bug River Landscape Park.