St Ladislaus Church in Szydłów

In stone-built Szydłów, where the walls, castle and synagogue were all raised from local limestone, the parish church of St Ladislaus stands out by its colour alone: it is a brick Gothic church from the mid-14th century. It was founded by King Casimir the Great and belongs to the so-called Baryczka group – churches the king is said to have built as penance for the death of the priest Marcin Baryczka. It stands in the south-eastern corner of the old town, right by the defensive walls, and its tall west gable can be seen from many points in the town.

History: a royal penance

According to the tradition recorded by the chronicler Jan Długosz, Canon Marcin Baryczka rebuked the king too boldly for his way of life and was drowned in the Vistula on royal orders. Founding the Szydłów church was meant to be one of the acts of atonement for this death. The Szydłów church was built around 1355 on the site of an older timber church – a parish may have existed here as early as the 13th century, and a local priest appears in documents from 1325–1327.

Fires and wars damaged the church again and again. In 1630 fire destroyed the roof, covered with heavy tiles, and the vaults collapsed; the Swedish wars brought further destruction, and rebuilding dragged on until around 1671. That reconstruction restored the Gothic look only in the chancel, the interior was plastered and the roof covered with shingles. Paradoxically, it was the fighting of 1944, when the roof burned, that allowed the medieval character to return: during works in 1945–1948 later annexes were removed, two pillars supporting the nave vault were rebuilt and the Gothic portals were uncovered.

Architecture and what to see

This is a two-aisled hall church with a polygonal chancel to the east. The walls are laid in a Gothic bond with dark, over-fired bricks, and the details are carved in sandstone. Sources differ on how the two-aisled layout came about: some say it was planned from the start, others that the side aisle was added in the Renaissance. Look out for:

• two richly moulded 14th-century portals – west and south, with small columns and capitals carved with plant motifs (the south one is now walled up),
• the sacristy with its original Gothic rib vault on decorative corbels, bosses with floral and heraldic motifs and floral wall painting,
• the west gable with pointed and round blind arches arranged in a pyramid,
• the bell tower – an 18th-century conversion of a former defensive tower, where the arrow slits are still visible,
• the ruins of the Gothic vicarage by the town wall south of the church, destroyed in 1944.

Good to know

The church lies on the Lesser Poland Way of St James from Sandomierz to Tyniec, a revived section of the medieval pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostela. Szydłów has two Gothic churches of very different character – the brick parish church and the small stone All Saints' Church outside the walls – and seeing both makes the contrast in material and scale easy to grasp.

Tripto tip

The church is an active parish church on ul. Staszowska with no ticket of its own; the interior is mostly open around services, but the exterior, gable, portals and bell tower can be seen at any time. Right next to it is a free car park – all car parks in Szydłów are free. The town suggests up to 2.5 hours for all its sights; a combined ticket for the town-run sites (the castle with the Museum of Royal Castles, the synagogue, All Saints' Church, the hospital and Holy Spirit Church) costs PLN 35 (PLN 25 reduced, as of October 2026). From November to March the town-run sites are open daily 8:00–16:00.