St. Mark's Piarist Church in Warža - Roman Catholic church in Warža originally belonging to the Piarist Order, later transformed into a parish church, active until 1951, now in ruins.

History
From written sources, it is known that the parish of Warže certainly existed in 1486, but the exact date of its foundation is unknown. From the beginning it was part of the Chelm diocese, then, as a result of the partitions of the Republic of Poland, it belonged to the Przemyśl diocese from 1783-1787, and from 1787 until the church was closed in 1951 to the Lviv archdiocese. The Piarist outpost in Warż, comprising the college and church, was founded in 1688. The first architectural designs of the Warż college buildings were prepared around 1688 by the architect Tylman of Gameren. Until the construction of the brick buildings of the Piarist school, the wooden buildings, erected at the time of the foundation of the institution, were in place. Work on the school was not completed until around 1750, thanks to the financial support of Marek Matczyński, Józef Antoni Łaszcz and Franciszek Saleze Potocki, respectively. As the only secondary school in the Bełz voivodeship, the Piarist college in Warż experienced its heyday in the 1770s, when the school had more than 300 students, taught by 15 teachers. The institution was abolished by the Austrians in 1784, and the school buildings were taken over by the government. The south wing was demolished for building material and the other two were decided to be sold to private individuals. Over the course of the 19th century, the college buildings served various functions, including residential and commercial use. Towards the end of the century, a school was opened in them, thus avoiding another demolition. After necessary renovations, an educational institution continued to function in the buildings also in the interwar period, sharing the space with the municipal office. After the Second World War, the western wing of the monastery and the southern part of the eastern wing were demolished at an unspecified time, while the remaining northern part was extensively rebuilt.

The first chapel of the Piarist order was wooden and was built together with the foundation of the school in 1688. Before 1690, the erection of a brick church began. Work must have progressed quickly, as the façade bears a large foundation plaque with an inscription that lists 1693 as the time when the church was completed (it was probably already finished in its shell by then). The first designs for the church, as well as the monastery, were prepared by Tylman of Gameren, but a different design was eventually realised. The church was damaged in a fire in 1763.

In 1785 the Piarist outpost was abolished and the church was transferred to a parish temple. In 1785, the Piarist institution was dissolved and the church was transferred to a parish church. As a result, the furnishings of the former parish church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Stanislaus in Warž were transferred to the Piarist church. In 1810, the Austrian government confiscated some of the liturgical equipment, but the church remained in good condition in the following years. In 1851 the belfry burnt down and was restored, the bells were also replaced, and in 1896 the organ was repaired, and at the beginning of the 20th century the helmets of the towers were rebuilt.

In 1928 the parish bought the former monastery building, and the following year, at the behest of the Lviv Preservation Office, an inventory was prepared of the entire church and monastery complex. In the 1930s partial repairs were carried out (including to the façade and interior).

The church did not suffer any major damage during the Second World War, but on 17 March 1944, due to attacks by Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) bands, the parish priest Fr Edward Godlewicz and the inhabitants left the town. The UPA gangs destroyed the interior of the church and presbytery, plundered the belongings they had left behind, and murdered 11 Poles who had not left Warążec.

Eventually, the parish priest was expelled from Warža by the authorities of Soviet Ukraine on 3 November 1951. The church was closed and used as a furniture shop and warehouse. In 1983, the roof over the church was demolished, which soon led to the destruction of the vaults, resulting in their collapse and the destruction of the very valuable 18th-century fresco decoration of the interior. The rapid degradation of the church continues to this day.

During the evacuation, the parish managed to transport some of the furnishings. It is known that the painting "Vision of St. Mark" from the main altar was transferred to the curia in Lubaczów, and then to the Museum of Borderlands in Lubaczów and is exhibited in the local concathedral, the painting "Our Lady of the Snows" was first transferred to the house of the servant sisters in Prałkowice near Przemyśl, and on 5 October 1980 to the Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland. On 5 October 1980, it was transferred to the Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland in Stalowa Wola, where it was placed in the main altar. The painting with a full-figure image of the founder of the college and the church, Marek Matczyński, first went to the church in Sulimów, and then was donated to the Borderlands Museum in Lubaczów. A large part of the objects from the church in Waresz are now in the parish church in Czerna near Ustrzyki Dolne.

Architecture and painting decoration of the church
. The church was built in the centre of Warta, by a pond, on a small hill. Built of brick, on a rectangular plan, three-bay with a narrower and lower presbytery and on the axis successively two two-storey sacristy annexes lowering their height. The interior has a wall and pillar system, with pairs of pilasters superimposed on the pillars supporting fragments of the beam, barrel vaults with lunettes. Music choir built into the first bay on three arcades. Two-tower, two-storey façade surmounted by a triangular pediment. The upper storeys of the towers are quadrilateral in plan, with wider chamfered corners, forming an octagon-like projection.

Above the main entrance a large plaque of black Dębnik marble with the foundation inscription: "Ad maiorem DEI Gloriam | sui Tutelaris Divi Marci Apostoli & Evangelistae Honorem | verae Fidei propagationem | NOMINIS SVI perpetuam memoriam | Religionis vero Clericorum Regularium Paupe rum Matris Dei | SCHOLARUM PIARUM | Vnicum Solatium | Illustrissimus Dominus in WARAZ & MICHROW | MACRUS MATCZYNSKI | PALATINVS & Generalis Terrarum Russiae | Bełzensis Braclaviensis Rubieszoviensis Groiecensis | CAPITANEVS | Hanc Ecclesiam FVNDAVIT | Felicissime Regnante Serenissimo REGE POLONIAE | IOANNE TERTIO | Anno Domini MDCXCIII". Above the side entrances small black marble plaques with the coats of arms of the Piarist Order. At the top of the façade a dedicatory plaque with the inscription: "Si enim Coelvm et | Coeli Coelorvm Te | Capere non possvnt | Qvanto Magis | Domvs haec qvam | aedifi cavi Tibi".

Originally, there were monastery wings on either side of the church: a rectangular-shaped wing to the east and two L-shaped wings to the west. In front of the church was a gate leading to the church grounds, and in front of this was a free-standing brick arcaded belfry for three bells, surmounted by a triangular pediment in which was placed a plaque with the inscription: "TO THE HONOUR AND GLORY OF GOD, FROM THE GIFTS OF GOOD PIOUS BENEFACTORS, THE BELLS MADE R.P. 1851 AND THE BELFRY COMPLETED 1852 THANKS TO REV. MICHAŁ MROCZKOWSKI PARISH PRIEST".

Fresco paintings covered the entire surface of the walls and vaults of the church and sacristy. Seven architectural illusionistically painted altars were painted on the walls (five of them had illusionistically painted niches around them). On the choir wall were depictions of the patron saints of church music - 'King David playing the harp and St Cecilia playing the organ', and above the music choir was a scene of the 'Angelic Concert' set against an illusionistic architectural background.

The articulation of the interior was carried out by illusionistically painted canelised pilasters. On these were painted cachets and portraits of the apostles in illusionistic frames. On the vaulting of the nave, in an illusionistic frame made of architecture, was a scene in panoramic view, depicting the 'Triumph of Faith'. In the centre of the scene, putti were visible lifting the insignia of papal power - a tiara and a cross; the figures held a host on a chalice and a cross. On the sides of the composition were personifications of the four continents: "Europe" on a horse, "Asia" on a camel, "Africa" on a lion and "America" on a crocodile. They were accompanied by personifications of the virtues 'Faith', 'Hope', 'Love' and 'Justice'. The rainbow arch depicts the scene of the 'Adoration of the Lamb by 24 old men' and the coats of arms Prawdzic with the bishop's insignia (belonging to Bishop Józef Antoni Łaszcz), Pilawa (of Franciszek Salezego Potocki) and Jastrzębiec. In the presbytery, illusionist altarpieces were painted on the walls with the scenes: "Vision of St Joseph Kalasantego" and "Vision of St Kajetan".

In the sacristy of the church, cartouches with portraits of prominent Piarists were painted on the walls in addition to illusionistic flower vases in the vault lunettes: "St. Joseph Kalasanty", "St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi showing the Sacred Heart of Jesus", "Blessed Peter Casani and the Host in the monstrance", "Stanislaus Papczyński and the Angel with the image of the Virgin Mary" and "Glicerius Landriani and the Angel holding the image of Jesus". In the centre of the vault the 'Mary with the Dove of the Holy Spirit' was visible. The room also contained a painted coat of arms of Prawdzic (Łaszczów).

Artistic problems
The designs of Tylman of Gameren prepared for the church and monastery in Waresz were meticulously discussed in the literature by Stanislaw Mossakowski, a monographer of the Dutch architect. Since, for unknown reasons, these designs were not realised, the church in Waręż, together with a group of other buildings (including the church in Uhnów), was linked by researchers first to the mason Wojciech Lenartowicz and, after Jerzy Kowalczyk's research, to the major of the Zamoyski fortress, the engineer Jan Michał Link. There were also attempts to combine the two positions. This discussion has been collected and put in order in recent years by Michał Kurzej. This researcher analysed the proportions of the church in Warż and Uhnów, as well as the way in which the walls were connected, and concluded that the design of the church in Warż should be combined with the mason Wojciech Lenartowicz, who built the church in Uhnów and signed his name on its façade.

One of the most valuable monuments of the Waręże church is the 18th-century polychrome originally covering the entire interior of the church. Unfortunately, despite archival research, it is still not known when exactly it was created or who its author was. However, it has been possible to identify some of the patterns used by the anonymous painters to compose the frescoes. These were engravings from a treatise by the Jesuit Andrea Pozza titled 'The Fresco. "Perspectiva pictorum et architectorum" (painted architecture on the vault), as well as figural scenes from engravings according to the following paintings by Rubens: the main scene on the vault of the nave repeats a composition known from an engraving by Nicolas Lauwers, the allegory of Europe was modelled on the 'Voyage of Marie de Medici to Les Ponts-de-Ce', and the image of the crocodile from the 'Personification of America' was modelled on a fragment of the 'Hunting of the Crocodile and the Hippopotamus'.