The Sacred Lesser Poland Heritage

History of work

The existing church in Zabierzów Bocheński is the second temple located in this place. In 1742, thanks to the efforts of Father Stanisław Cetnarski - parish priest in nearby Wawrzeńczyce - a small wooden temple was built in Zabierzów, the southernmost hamlet of the parish. As it was recorded in "Liber memorabilium" of the Zabierzów parish, it was "a serious but poor pine temple, built with a bell tower and a chaplain's apartment". The temple was consecrated by Cardinal Jan Aleksander Lipski. It received the invocation of Divine Mercy and Protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and served as a branch church to the parish in Wawrzeńczyce. The construction of the temple in Zabierzów was supposed to make participation in religious life easier for people living south of the Vistula River. Until that time, it was impeded not only by a considerable distance to the church in Wawrzeńczyce, but also by frequent floods of the then unregulated Vistula River. The parish in Zabierzów Bocheński was established in 1780, separating it from the parish of St. Mary Magdalene in Wawrzeńczyce. Father Tadeusz Zając became the first parish priest. At the end of the 19th century, the wooden temple ceased to meet the needs of the parish, and a decision to build a larger, brick church, was made. It was noted in the aforementioned "Liber memorabilium" that the old wooden church, "despite its fairly good condition", during a public auction, "not without a scandal and shock of parishioners", was sold to Jews, who built a house in Niepołomice from the purchased material. The new temple was built during the ministry of the parish priest Klemens Radwański in 1878-1881. On 23 June 1888, Albin Dunajewski, Bishop of Cracow, consecrated the church. It received a short invocation (in comparison to the previous one) of the Protection of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary. The designs of the church dated from 1876, signed by the Polish architect Józef Braunseis, have been preserved in the parish archive in Zabierzów Bocheński.

Abstract

The existing church in Zabierzów Bocheński is the second temple located in this place. It was built on the site of an earlier wooden building erected in 1742. The construction of the brick church lasted from 1878 to 1881. It was built according to the design of Józef Braunseis, a Polish architect working mainly in Lviv. On June 23, 1888, Albin Dunajewski, Bishop of Cracow, consecrated the church. The present church in Zabierzów Bocheński is a small temple built in the historicism style. The author of the design, Józef Braunseis, designed buildings in various stylish costumes, i.e. from Neo-Romanesque through Neo-Gothic, Neo-Renaissance and Neo-Baroque to Modernism. The most valuable piece of furnishings in this temple is a painting of Madonna and the Child dated 1620, placed in the high altar. In the southern arm of the transept there is a side altar containing the image of the Merciful Jesus of 1989, and in the northern arm of the transept there is a statue of the Christ Crucified made in 2001, which is integrated into the restored elements of the former high altar. The painting depicting Madonna of Częstochowa, placed next to the cross, dates back to the end of the 19th century. The stained-glass set filling the windows of the church in Zabierzów Bocheński was made in the the Cracovian Stained Glass and Artistic Glazing Workshop of Maksymilian Romańczyk in the years 1937-1938. Stations of the Cross painted on canvas were created in 1995.