Churches & monasteries

Church of St. Vitus, Modest and Crescentia in Sierpc

The oldest monument of Sierpc is the parish church of St Vitus, Modest and Crescentia on the Old Town. Tradition links the founding of the parish with the year 1003, and according to local accounts the first chapel was built here on the rubble of a pagan shrine from the 10th century.

Gothic with baroque additions

The present masonry church dates from the 15th century. It was built of brick with field stones, and old millstones were used in the lower tiers of the tower. In 1569 Andrzej Sieprski extended the church and added the southern burial chapel of the Sieprski family with a baroque gable. Later centuries brought a series of disasters: fires in 1630 and 1648, rebuilding in the 18th century and another fire in 1794, after which the reconstruction was completed only in 1844. During the Second World War the Germans turned the church into a warehouse; it was rebuilt in the 1950s and last renovated in 2005–2007.

Baroque altar and rococo organ

Inside, a baroque high altar with rococo ornaments from the first half of the 18th century has survived, along with a late-baroque side altar from the second half of that century and rococo organs. The masonry choir rests on three arcades, and a massive four-tier tower with a porch in its base rises to the west.

Practical information

The church lies between Farna, Biskupa Floriana and Benedyktyńska streets, a few minutes from the Sierpc market square and the open-air Museum of the Mazovian Countryside. The interior can be visited during services.