Plaque with a history of church

Abstract

Most probably, the plaque was funded in 1731 by Michał Stanisław Tarnowski - a castellan in Sieradz, and by his wife Róża Ściborówna of Rylsko, on the occasion of renovation of temple in Gorenice. Inscription placed on the plaque concisely presents the history of church dedicated to St. Nicholas in Gorenice up to 1731 when (presumably) the plaque was funded and built in the wall of the temple. In the 17th and 18th centuries, numerous elements of church furnishings were made of "black marble," quarried in Dębnik near Cracow. Plaques and epitaph plaques most often took the form of an aedicula or simply a frame, sometimes complemented by a heraldic cartouche or a portrait of the person whose epitaph plaque or plaque was to commemorate. In Lesser Poland, the number of preserved monuments of this type has been relatively large. In the St. Nicholas' Church in Gorenice, except for the plaque in question, there are also epitaph plaques (made of black marble) of members of the Tarnowscy family: Krystyna Tarnowska (d. in 1695), Maciej Aleksander Tarnowski (d. in 1689), Michał Stanisław Tarnowski and Róża Tarnowska.