Exaltation of the Holy Cross Church in Brzeziny: A Historic Roman Catholic Church
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.3
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Poland
- Primary era
- Medieval
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Early Modern
- Civilizations
- Kingdom of Poland, Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
- Site type
- Religious
- Remains
- Church
On this page11 sections
History
The Exaltation of the Holy Cross church in Brzeziny, Poland, is a Roman Catholic church built in the first half of the fourteenth century in the Gothic style. It belongs to the parish of the same dedication and has continued to serve Brzeziny’s Catholic community through successive periods of rebuilding.
Medieval foundation and Renaissance rebuilding
The church was originally constructed as a Gothic brick building. During the Renaissance, it underwent its first major rebuilding. The Lasocki and Miedziankow chapels were added as family mausoleums, with underground burial spaces known as catacombs. Stanislaw Lasocki, then the owner of Brzeziny, financed the church’s rich endowment and one of these chapels. Furnishings for the chapels and the church were brought from Krakow.
The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary was added in 1515. Its design was modeled on the Sigismund Chapel at Wawel Cathedral, a Renaissance royal burial chapel in Krakow. The Chapel of the Holy Cross, added in 1619, was the last chapel built at the church. These additions contributed Renaissance and later Baroque elements to the earlier Gothic structure.
Damage, reconstruction, and protection
In the mid-nineteenth century, serious structural damage led to the church’s closure. Reconstruction followed, and the building was consecrated on 30 October 1853. It then resumed its religious role and has remained in use by the Catholic community of Brzeziny.
The church is a protected historic property registered under number A/207. Its registration entries are dated 10 September 1947, 19 November 1960, and 27 July 1967.
Remains
The surviving church is a brick masonry building with a single nave and a low chancel, the area reserved for the altar and clergy. A two-storey sacristy, used for storing liturgical objects and vestments, and a small porch adjoin the building beside the chancel. Repeated rebuilding has left the church with a combination of Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque elements.
Chapels and burial spaces
Lasocki Chapel
The Renaissance Lasocki Chapel serves as the Lasocki family mausoleum. Its prominent dome is topped by a lantern, a raised windowed structure, modeled on the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The chapel contains funerary sculptures from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Miedziankow and other chapels
The Miedziankow Chapel also contains sixteenth- and seventeenth-century funerary sculptures. The Chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary, added in 1515, follows the model of the Sigismund Chapel at Wawel Cathedral, while the Chapel of the Holy Cross dates from 1619.
Furnishings and sacred objects
The church preserves Baroque organs dating from the seventeenth century, a Gothic sculpture of Christ in Gethsemane from around 1500, a Crucifixion relief from the sixteenth or seventeenth century, and a seventeenth-century crucifix. Other furnishings include a bell dated 1641, three holy-water stoups, two of them Gothic, and a Rococo confessional dating from the seventeenth century. The collection also includes a silver cross-shaped reliquary bearing the coat of arms of Brzeziny and the date 1628, a sixteenth-century sculpture of Saint Nicholas of Bari, and a seventeenth-century tower-shaped monstrance used to display the consecrated Eucharistic host.
Funerary monuments
Monument to Urszula Lezenska
The tomb monument of Urszula of the Maciejowski family, Lezenska, was commissioned by her husband, the castellan Jan Lezenski. Jan Michalowicz of Urzedow made it between 1565 and 1568.
Lasocki tomb slab
A tomb slab commemorating Stanislaw Lasocki and Zofia of the Szydlowiecki family, Lasocka, dates from the first half of the sixteenth century. It was made by Giovanni Cini of Siena.
