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ID: POL-002077-P

Parish Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Stupnica Polska

ID: POL-002077-P

Parish Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Stupnica Polska

Historical outline
Stupnica is one of the oldest settlements in the region. The village was first mentioned in the second half of the 14th century. It was then that Duke Władysław Opolczyk granted the village to Dziordzi, the Voivode of Wołów, and at the same time the progenitor of the Stupnicki family. It was in their possession that Stupnica remained until the beginning of the 17th century. Later it belonged to the Bandrowski family, the Łosi family and in the 19th century to Juliusz Nahlik, who at the end of the century sold the manor, located 2 km to the east, to colonists coming from the area of Krosno and Sanok. This is how Stupnica Polska came into being, which separated from the former village now called Stupnica Ruska.

Juliusz Nahlik, when selling the estate, stipulated that the proceeds be used for church purposes. He wanted to create something resembling a church building with facilities for a serving priest. It is likely that the initial intentions were modest and only a chapel was intended. The nucleus for a church fund was thus established and contributed to by the new settlers. They also bought additional land to strengthen the facilities of the future (as it was assumed) parish. At that time, Stupnica was subordinate to the parish in Dublany. Although there had already been a chapel in the village since 1900, the formal establishment of an outpost (initially a branch parish) took place in 1903. An exposition was established 9 years later, and an indissoluble parish in 1928. It provided pastoral care to such villages as Kotowania, Mokrzany, Niedźwiedzia (Niedźwiedza), Sielec, Stupnica Ruska, Winniki and, of course, Stupnica Polska.

The ambitions of the inhabitants of Stupnica were alive from the early 20th century. The chapel grew, and around 1913 it was very close to building a brick church. However, due to structural reasons and problems of all sorts encountered along the way, it was decided to build a wooden structure. It was completed in 1935 and the consecration took place then.

The history of the church during the Second World War is not known. Sources only say that many parishioners were murdered by the Germans, which motivated the survivors to leave for the west. Some of them returned to Stupnica after the Red Army entered, but the new Soviet reality forced them to retreat. It is likely that some of the equipment was taken with them by those leaving. The building stood abandoned until the early 1950s, when it was turned into a grain warehouse. Devastated and unusable, the church was destroyed with tractors in 1987.

Architecture
The lack of detailed information about the church, as well as the paucity of photographic material, definitely hinders research on this now defunct building. What is known, however, is that it was an interesting example of architecture that was stylistically unobtrusive, but only gently alluding to the style of traditional Polish carpentry aesthetics, not devoid of references to the Zakopane style.

The building was located in the western part of the village, in an area falling down a steep slope to the Stupnica Wielka stream. The wooden church was built on a concrete foundation, which still existed (along with other remnants scattered around the square) in the 1990s. The church was built on the plan of a Latin cross. The three-nave, five-bay body was contoured with a single-bay low transept and closed with a three-sided chancel. To the west of the nave there was a tower on a square plan, flanked by two square annexes. Similar 'annexes' existed on the other side from the chancel. They served as sacristy and treasury. A small vestibule existed at the northern annex.

The window openings in the walls of the nave and the gable walls of the transept were rectangular and closed with a semicircle. The same (although larger) were used in the side walls of the chancel. In the eastern walls of the annexes, square windows were placed on the lower storey and smaller rectangular windows closed with a semicircle on the upper storey. An oculus was placed in the axial wall of the chancel.

There was a gable roof over the main body and the annexes. There was a multi-pitched roof over the chancel and three-pitched roofs over the arms of the transept. The helmet of the tower had a pyramidal finial. The openwork bell turret was built on an octagonal ground plan and covered with an onion-shaped cupola with a cross. It was entirely covered with sheet metal, as were all the other roofs.

Related persons:
Time of origin:
1935
Creator:
Aleksander Krzywobłocki (artysta wizualny; Polska)
Bibliography:
  • Rafał Quirini-Popławski „Kościół parafialny p.w. Narodzenia Najświętszej Panny Marii w Stupnicy Polskiej.” W: „Materiały do dziejów sztuki sakralnej na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej. Cz. 1: Kościoły i klasztory rzymskokatolickie dawnego województwa ruskiego” T. 6. Kraków: Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury w Krakowie, 1998, 185-190.
Publikacja:
20.07.2024
Ostatnia aktualizacja:
20.07.2024
Author:
Michał Dziadosz
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