Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec, all rights reserved
Źródło: Archidiecezja Lwowska Kościoła Łacińskiego na Ukrainie, Modyfikowane: yes
Fotografia przedstawiająca Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec
Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec, all rights reserved
Źródło: Archidiecezja Lwowska Kościoła Łacińskiego na Ukrainie
Fotografia przedstawiająca Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec
Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec, all rights reserved
Źródło: Archidiecezja Lwowska Kościoła Łacińskiego na Ukrainie
Fotografia przedstawiająca Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec
Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec, all rights reserved
Źródło: Archidiecezja Lwowska Kościoła Łacińskiego na Ukrainie
Fotografia przedstawiająca Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec
Interior of St. Joseph's Parish Church in Trzcieniec, all rights reserved
Źródło: Archidiecezja Lwowska Kościoła Łacińskiego na Ukrainie
Fotografia przedstawiająca Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec
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ID: POL-002243-P/165060

Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec

ID: POL-002243-P/165060

Parish Church of St. Joseph in Trzcieniec

Historical outline
The village is located 6 km west of Mosetzky, on the road from Przemyśl to Lviv. There is not much information in the sources about the beginnings of Trzcieniec, and if there is, it is often contradictory. Among the owners mentioned are: Kamieniecki, Jaksmanicki, Czuryła, Drohojowski, Mielecki, Litynski, or Grochowski. As a matter of fact, until the 20th century, the village was subordinated to the parish in Mościski. It was not until 1930 that an independent parish was established here.

For a very long time Trzcieniec also had no recorded religious building. The first such building is considered to be the neo-Gothic manorial chapel, which was built in 1889. It was also a burial chapel and originated from the foundation of Władysław and Wanda (née Smarzewska) Young. Construction of the church began in 1914, but during the First World War the Russian authorities dismantled the structure, which had already reached a height of 10 metres, and used the materials for... paving the road.

When the global conflict was over, services were held in the manor chapel. The first fully-fledged church building was not built until the 1920s, and its consecration took place in 1928.

As Andrzej Betlej writes in his study of the building, the church was not completed and properly equipped for quite a long time. In 1929 there were only makeshift altars in the building. In the second half of the 1930s the construction of a new parish house began.

The development of the parish was halted by the Second World War. Most of the furnishings were burnt down or taken away, although the church building continued to operate until 1950. Stalinist repression, however, led to its closure and the imprisonment of the priest in charge of the parish. When the parish priest was released, the church continued to function until 1957, at which point both pastor and worshippers were forced to leave the village. For many years the building deteriorated. Among other things, it lost all its windows and stained glass windows. The Soviets stored chemicals in it, which even affected the condition of the walls. Paradoxically, in 1980, when Moscow hosted the Olympic Games, the facades on the side of the main road were painted. Throughout the years of Soviet domination, the parish house was successively used as a military headquarters, delivery room, school, dormitory and community council headquarters.

The church was returned to the faithful in 1989. In the following years, renovations were carried out and new furnishings were completed.

Architecture
The building is located near the transit road leading from Przemyśl to Lviv. The Neo-Gothic church was built of brick and plastered. It sits on a stone plinth and is oriented (i.e. oriented towards the symbolic east, meaning Jerusalem). It was built on a cruciform ground plan. It consists of a three-bay nave, a two-bay chancel closed at three sides and the arms of the transept. The towers also attract attention.

The largest of these towers rises from the nave and its front constitutes the façade of the building. It consists of as many as four storeys, the first of which includes the porch on the ground floor and the music choir on the first floor lit by an oculus. The next storey transitions into an octagonal shape. The tapering cantilevers at the sides are designed to smooth the transition from the façade to the further parts. At this level is an elongated rectangular window with a pointed end. The next storey has a similar design, but no brackets. The entire structure is crowned by an interesting module made up of small aedicule-like reliefs with triangular roofs, extending to the four sides of the world, covered by a pointed helmet ending in a cross. The tower's storeys were separated by capitular cornices.

The main tower is flanked on two sides by smaller towers reaching up to 2/3 of the second storey with pointed cupolas. They are fitted with narrow openings stylised as gun slits. The church facades are surrounded by a plinth and a profiled cornice at the top. The articulation of the external walls is based on three-sided buttresses covered with gabled roofs, reflecting the structure of the bays, but also capturing the corners of the transept. In the remaining two-thirds height, the building is surrounded by a band which also frames the arches enclosing the windows. The windows, characteristic of the Neo-Gothic style, are rectangular in almost all parts of the building and end in pointed arches.

The building is covered mainly by gable roofs (nave, transept arms, presbytery). There is a multi-pitched roof over the apse. All of them, including the finials of the tower and turrets and the bell turret, are covered with sheet metal.

The interior walls were articulated with flat, wall-mounted pillars passing into the vaulted gables. Cross-ribbed vaults in the nave and chancel. Crystal vaults were used in the west porch and the room above it. The remaining modules have ceilings.

Most of the windows in the church, as mentioned above, are rectangular openings, closed with arches, except for the oculus on the tower floor and the annexes at the chancel. There the windows are rectangular, closed with a donkey's back. There are two rainbow arcades in the building. One, naturally enough, is between the chancel and the nave section. The other is above the music choir. Both are pointed-arch.

The brick-built, pillar-supported music choir is illuminated by an oculus from the façade. Its parapet is supported by an arcade enclosing the porch from the inside.

Highlights of the church furnishings include:

  • The main altar with the relics of St Stanislaus and St Florian, dating from the 1920s;
  • Stained glass windows from the Cracow workshop of Jan Kusiak, made after the church was recovered by the faithful, in the 1990s;
  • Sculptures: "Saint John Napomucen" polychrome wood, c. XVIII, "Christ Crucified" polychrome wood in. XVIII, "Christ Crucified" polychrome wood folk, "Saint Teresa", "Saint Francis", "Christ Risen";
  • Memorial plaque, made of black marble, and bearing the inscription: PRIEST CANON | ZYGMUNT DZIEDZIAK | BUILDER OF THIS TEMPLE, | PERSECUTED FOR HIS FAITH, | FIRST PASTOR | PARISH OF ST. JOSEPH | IN 1930-1957 | GRATEFUL PARISHIONERS | TRZCIENIEC 20.03.1999.
Related persons:
Time of origin:
consecration 1928
Creator:
Stanisław Majerski (architekt; Polska, Ukraina)(preview)
Bibliography:
  • Andrzej Betlej, „Kościół parafialny pw. św. Józefa w Trzcieńcu”, w: „Materiały do dziejów sztuki sakralnej na ziemiach wschodnich dawnej Rzeczypospolitej”, cz. 1: „Kościoły i klasztory rzymskokatolickie dawnego województwa ruskiego”, Kraków: Międzynarodowe Centrum Kultury w Krakowie, 1999, ISBN 83-85739-66-1, t. 7, s. 351-358.
Supplementary bibliography:
Publikacja:
11.10.2024
Ostatnia aktualizacja:
11.10.2024
Author:
Michał Dziadosz
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