Church and Sanctuary in Rajcza

The Church of St Lawrence and St Casimir in Rajcza is also the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Casimir – one of four Marian shrines in the Żywiec region. The high altar holds a small painting on a copper plate which, according to its inscription, accompanied King John Casimir on his military campaigns and was given to the highlanders of the Soła valley after his abdication. Experts consider it one of the finest surviving 17th-century copies of the Black Madonna.

History: a royal gift to the highlanders

On 4 July 1669, John Casimir stopped in Żywiec on his way to France after abdicating. At the request of a delegation from Rajcza he allowed a church to be built in the village and gave the highlanders his painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa. A Latin inscription on the former portable altar states that the image came from Bełz Castle and supported the king in all his campaigns. The first wooden church of St Lawrence was consecrated on 8 May 1674, and a tower was added in 1693 by the carpenter Jan Bennert. The painting was placed on an altar in 1684.

The wooden church was closed in 1884 because it threatened to collapse. The present masonry church was built in 1886–1889 to a design by Karol Pietschka, thanks to the efforts of parish priest Andrzej Kulig, and consecrated on 15 October 1889. Timber from the old church was used for the cemetery chapel. In 1997 the church became a sanctuary, and on 1 July 2017 Bishop Roman Pindel crowned the painting with episcopal crowns.

The painting: a masterpiece on copper

The image is painted on a copper plate measuring 64 × 45.5 cm; it originally had an ebony frame with silver mounts so it could stand on a table. During conservation in 2016, diocesan conservator Fr Szymon Tracz suggested the painter may have been Fr Felicjan Ratyński, one of the best-known artists working at Jasna Góra. The Rajcza painting renders the so-called Władysław crowns, donated in 1635 by King Władysław IV, in almost photographic detail – a unique record of that lost gift. Locally the image is also called the Madonna with a Braid.

What to see inside

• The high altar with the venerated painting, moved here from a side altar in 1976; its cover panel shows St Lawrence.
• The three-aisled hall interior with a transept, inspired by Romanesque and Gothic styles and restored in 2005.
• Side altars of Our Lady of the Rosary and St Casimir.
• The organ by Jan Grocholski's Lviv workshop from 1897 – two manuals, pedal and 23 stops.
• The bell in the ridge turret inscribed "Audite gentes vocem Domini 1677", brought from the old church.
• The grave of Fr Andrzej Kulig, the church's builder, by the apse wall.

Tripto tips

• Visiting: this is an active sanctuary – view the interior outside services and quietly.
• Time needed: 20–30 minutes is enough for the church and the painting.
• Nearby: a small museum room about the painting and the sanctuary in the 1894 presbytery can be visited by prior arrangement.
• Getting there: Rajcza lies in the Soła valley on the Żywiec – Zwardoń railway line, so it combines easily with a trip into the Żywiec Beskids.