St Bartholomew's Church in Morawica

To build the church in Morawica, Prince August Aleksander Czartoryski sold the treasures of the chapel at Tenczyn Castle and then had half of Morawica's old castle pulled down. On its rubble, between 1743 and 1748, rose the Baroque Church of St Bartholomew the Apostle, designed by the Italian architect Francesco Placidi. The other half of the castle survived as the presbytery, with passages cut into solid rock.

History: seat of the Topór clan

Morawica, in the Liszki district near Kraków, was the medieval seat of the powerful Topór clan, who lived here by the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries and later took the name Tęczyński. The parish is first recorded in the "Greater Life of St Stanislaus" by Wincenty of Kielcza, which describes a miracle experienced by the knight Andrzej of Morawica and names the parish priest Świętek (1247–1253). In 1286 a "Petrus capellanus de Morawica", chaplain of the castle chapel, appears.

The first church was wooden; in 1408 it was replaced by a masonry church, which the chronicler Jan Długosz described as built "of white stone". In 1743 Czartoryski, owner of the Tenczyn estates, decided it was too small. Together with his wife Zofia née Sieniawska he funded the new building with money from selling the Tenczyn chapel treasures. The old church was demolished in five days, 22–27 April 1743; construction began on 29 April and was finished on 26 October 1748. Placidi charged 180 Polish złoty for the design. The church was consecrated in 1755 by Bishop Andrzej Stanisław Załuski.

What to see

• The façade with a black Dębnik marble portal bearing the founders' coats of arms.
• The single-nave interior, about 33 m long, with a barrel vault and a chancel ending in a semicircular apse.
• Late Baroque altars with Régence-style carving, probably also designed by Placidi.
• A painting of the Virgin and Child of the Our Lady of the Snows type, with 17th-century robes; tradition says it came from the Tenczyn castle chapel.
• A Baroque font of Dębnik marble shaped like a chalice.
• Above the sacristy door, an oval marble plaque with a Latin inscription about the Czartoryski foundation.
• An arcade-shaped screen belfry with the bell "Jan" from 1726.

The presbytery – a piece of the castle

Part of the castle was converted into the presbytery in 1666, as a foundation plaque records, and it was remodelled after 1871. Its thick walls and underground passages cut into the rock, which offered an escape from a besieged fortress, are the oldest part of the complex. The church, presbytery, belfry, wall and former castle hill are all listed monuments.

Tripto tip

The church stands on the old castle hill, with the presbytery – the rest of the fortress – right next to it. The interior is easiest to see around Mass: on Sundays at 7:00, 9:00, 11:30, 15:00 and 18:00, on weekdays at 7:00 and 18:00. The presbytery is the parish office and residence, and no source mentions the rock passages being open to visitors – ask at the parish office if you are keen to see them. Allow 30–45 minutes. Tenczyn Castle, where the Topór clan moved their seat in the 14th century and whose chapel treasures paid for the church, makes a natural second stop.