Church of the Assumption, Praszka

For generations the people of Praszka told each other that their church stood on wooden piles driven into marshy ground. Only a survey in 2000 disproved the legend: the stone foundations rest on natural ground, and any piles could only have supported the old wooden church. The twin-towered Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, built in 1872–1874, is today the most important historic building in this small town on the Prosna river and a shrine to Our Lady Queen of the Holy Rosary.

History: from a wooden church to twin towers

The parish dates back to 1392, when King Władysław Jagiełło granted a charter to found the town and build a church. The wooden church, laid out as a cross, had seven altars and a tower with a clock; a brick sacristy was added in 1720, but by 1839 it was in danger of collapse. It survived until 1871.

Work on the new brick church began in 1872 to a design by Anzelm Krysiński, with the patron Stanisław Potocki covering a quarter of the cost. The first service was held on the first Sunday of Advent 1873, but the interior took another ten years to finish – partly because the Tsarist authorities removed the parish priest, Father Sobolewski (Praszka then lay in the Russian-ruled part of Poland). Bishop Aleksander Bereśniewicz of Włocławek consecrated the church on 2 June 1884. In 1911–1913 two side aisles were added, arcades were opened to connect them, and the towers were raised by nine ells and crowned with domes.

War

On the eve of the Second World War, firing positions for rifles were prepared on the church walls. Until 1940 the occupiers tolerated services; then the parish registers were closed, and the church was turned into a warehouse and stripped of its liturgical vessels. On 6 October 1941 the Germans arrested the curate, Father Leon Poprawa, who was sent to Dachau concentration camp.

What to see

• The wall paintings of 1952–1953 by the Kraków painter Aleksander Trojkowicz, restored in 1996–1998 – the colourful interior contrasts sharply with the austere twin-towered façade.
• The painting of Our Lady Queen of the Holy Rosary from around 1700 in one of the side chapels – it is the reason the church is a shrine.
• The chapel altars – the description of the furnishings before the wartime looting lists Baroque altars of the Five Wounds of Christ and of the Virgin in the transept and St Valentine's altar from the late 18th century with a mid-17th-century painting of the saint.
• The rood beam with a cross above the altar – said to come from the old wooden church.

Interesting facts

The church stands on an embankment, closed off on the side of the former marshes by a stone retaining wall, and the whole square around it is an old parish cemetery with surviving graves. Praszka itself was a border town for over a century: from 1815 it lay in the Russian partition, right on the border with Prussia.

Tripto tip

The church is at ul. Senatorska 22. It is a working parish church of the Archdiocese of Częstochowa – entry is free, and the interior is easiest to see before or after Mass. Twenty to thirty minutes is enough for the paintings and chapels; please keep quiet during services. In town, also look into the Regional Museum with its history, ethnography and natural history displays, and see the railway station of 1914.