Wooden Church of St George and the Assumption in Miasteczko Śląskie

For more than a century after the town was founded, the people of Miasteczko Śląskie walked to neighbouring Żyglin for Mass. They only built a church of their own — wooden, with a shingled roof and a covered arcade — in 1665–1667, and the belfry beside it bears the date 1666. The former Church of the Assumption, now dedicated to St George and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, is one of the stops on the Wooden Architecture Route of the Silesian Voivodeship.

History: a mining town and its church

The town grew up in the 16th century around lead and silver mines and received its town charter on 23 April 1561 from Margrave George Frederick of Brandenburg. Because this happened on St George's Day, the town was named Georgenberg and given a coat of arms showing the saint fighting the dragon — although locals simply called it "Miasteczko", "the little town". The church was consecrated in 1670 by Bishop Mikołaj Oborski. For almost two hundred years it was only a chapel of ease of the Żyglin parish, with priests coming over from there to hold services.

In the 18th century the church was remodelled and a side altar was installed with a miraculous image of Our Lady of Sorrows, venerated — as an old record puts it — on both the "imperial" and the "Polish" side of the border. In 1823 the townspeople tried to move the parish from Żyglin to their own church, but the owner of Żyglin, from a different branch of the Henckel von Donnersmarck family, objected. Miasteczko got its own priests in 1849 and became an independent parish in 1914. Before that, in 1905–1908, a new brick parish church designed by Oskar Hoßfeld was built right next door, and the wooden church remained a chapel of ease.

What to see

• The log construction on a stone base and the double-ridged shingled roof, with a hexagonal turret topped by an onion dome and lantern.
• The soboty — a covered arcade on wooden posts running around the church, typical of old wooden churches in southern Poland.
• The three-sided chancel with a small rectangular sacristy on the north side.
• The interior, with a rood beam bearing a long painted inscription, a pulpit and paintings in ornate frames.
• The belfry of 1666 — a post structure clad in boards, with an onion dome, an octagonal lantern and double plank doors.
• An 18th-century statue of St John of Nepomuk in a small shrine in the churchyard wall.

Tripto tip

The church stands at Dworcowa 2, next to the newer parish church of the Assumption, so you can see both on one short walk. It is a chapel of ease with no regular visiting hours — the interior is easiest to see around services, and for other times ask at the parish office. The building, arcade and belfry can be admired from outside at any time; allow 20–30 minutes in total. Miasteczko Śląskie lies in Tarnowskie Góry County, close to the town of Tarnowskie Góry.