Church of the Assumption in Kurozwęki

The stone church in Kurozwęki was already standing around 1470, and from 1487 it served both the parish and the Canons Regular of the Lateran. Its greatest treasures are in the Chapel of the Five Wounds on the south side – late Renaissance outside, Baroque under the dome, with a late Gothic image of Christ as the Man of Sorrows in its marble altar. It makes a good addition to a visit to the nearby Popiel palace.

History: canons, the Lanckoroński family and an almshouse

The parish in Kurozwęki was founded in 1347. A church of stone and brick existed around 1470, and in 1487 Piotr of Kurozwęki, castellan of Sandomierz and royal treasurer, brought the Canons Regular of the Lateran here from Kraków. The church was enlarged and a monastery built beside it. Kurozwęki later belonged to the Lanckoroński family, who during the Reformation turned the church into a Protestant meeting house for a time. In the 18th and 19th centuries the estate passed to the Sołtyk and Popiel families. In 1827 the church and monastery were handed over as a home for the elderly run by the Sisters of Mercy – the former monastery still serves as a care home.

What to see

• The chancel from the second half of the 15th century – the oldest part of the church, two bays long with a polygonal end and a cross vault.
• The high altar, late Renaissance from the early 17th century, with a Baroque Virgin and Child in a silver robe and crowns dated 1648.
• Four Rococo side altars with paintings in silver robes, including Christ the Saviour, Our Lady of Sorrows and St Augustine with figures of heretics.
• The Chapel of the Five Wounds (the Lanckoroński chapel) from the first half of the 17th century, with a stucco-decorated dome and the founders' crypt beneath the floor. Its marble altar with stucco angels holds a late Gothic Vir Dolorum – Christ as the Man of Sorrows with the Virgin, St John and Blessed Stanisław Kazimierczyk, a Kraków canon of the same order.
• The neo-Gothic Popiel burial chapel of 1872 beside the chancel.
• The Baroque gateway in the churchyard wall and, in the former monastery courtyard, a column with a figure of Blessed Stanisław Kazimierczyk from 1776.

Interesting facts

The monastery complex was built from around 1470 into the 17th century and remodelled in the 19th, which is why Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque all meet in one church. The village takes its name from the Kurozwęcki family, who built a castle here in the 14th century that was later turned into a palace. The novelist Stefan Żeromski portrayed that palace in his novel "Popioły" (Ashes) as Prince Gintułt's seat at Grudno.

Tripto tip

The church is at ul. Kościelna 2, a few kilometres from Staszów. It is an active parish church, so the interior is easiest to see just before or after Mass. Allow 30–45 minutes for the church and its chapels. Combine the visit with the Popiel palace complex; the 18th-century cemetery church of St Roch is also nearby.