Church of St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist in Pilica

The church above Pilica's market square has royal connections: when it was built, the town belonged to the Pilecki family, and Elżbieta of Pilcza, daughter of Otto and Jadwiga, became the third wife of King Władysław Jagiełło in 1417. Successive owners enlarged and Baroque-ised the Gothic church of around 1400, so inside a Gothic chancel, a Renaissance burial chapel and Baroque altars stand side by side. The National Heritage Board counts it among the most valuable surviving churches of north-western Lesser Poland.

History: Pilecki, Padniewski, Warszycki

A parish church on St Peter's Hill was recorded in 1325. The present church was begun in 1393, funded by the Pilecki family, and was probably consecrated in 1410 by Piotr Wysz, Bishop of Kraków. In 1432, at Jan Pilecki's initiative, the parish became a provostry. From the second half of the 16th century Pilica belonged to the Padniewski family, who rebuilt the church in Baroque spirit while keeping the Gothic chancel and St Anne's chapel; in 1611 it became a collegiate church. The next owners, the Warszycki family, added further chapels in the 18th century, and in 1730–1731 Pilica passed to Maria Józefa Sobieska née Wessel, who gave the church many valuable objects.

What to see

• Gothic chancel – the oldest part of the church.
• Padniewski burial chapel of 1604, designed by Kasper Fodyga from Mesocco, with a lantern dome and the two-tier tomb of Mikołaj Padniewski and his wife Anna from 1601.
• High altar from the first half of the 17th century with a painting of Our Lady of the Snows from the early 17th century.
• Baroque pulpit with the four Evangelists and the Renaissance tomb of Kasia Pilecka (1555), attributed to Giovanni Maria Padovano.
• Chapels of St Anne, St Joseph and the Merciful Jesus – the last with a Late Gothic 16th-century crucifix.
• Neo-Baroque organ gallery of 1884, a 15th-century Gothic wall tabernacle and nave paintings by Adolf Hiroń from 1913.

Good to know

East of the church stands a freestanding Late Baroque bell tower of 1820. The church once had a parish school and a hospice for the sick and poor. The stone steps and arcade leading up to the church are marked by a plaque as a Baroque gift of Maria Józefa Sobieska from 1730.

Tripto tip

The church is at ul. Partyzantów 4, above the market square. According to the National Heritage Board it is open to visitors, generally before and after Mass – the easiest time to see the interior; 30 minutes is enough. Pilica lies in the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland (the Polish Jura); in town, add the ruined church of Saints Valentine and Stanislaus in Zarzecze and the wooden bell tower by the Church of Saints Peter and Paul.