Assumption of Holy Mary Church in Haczów - a Gothic,

wooden Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

church located in the village of

Haczów Haczów is a village in Brzozów County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Haczów. It lies approximately west of Brzozów and south of the regional capital R ...

from the fifteenth-century, which together with different churches is designated as part of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

Wooden Churches of Southern Lesser Poland. The church in

is the largest wooden Gothic church in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, and simultaneously one of the oldest wooden framework churches in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

History

The wooden church in

was built out of a wooden framework, raised after 1459, and expanded in 1624 (with the building of the 25 metre

starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine (perching) birds known for the often dark, glossy iridescent sheen of their plumage; their complex vocalizations including mimicking; and their distinctive, often elaborate swarming behavior, know ...

tower, built away from the church, topped out with a

cupola In architecture, a cupola () is a relatively small, usually dome-like structure on top of a building often crowning a larger roof or dome. Cupolas often serve as a roof lantern to admit light and air or as a lookout. The word derives, via Ital ...

, '' :pl:soboty'' (low wooden arcade around the church supported by pillars), the creation of windows in the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, and the building of an earth bulwark); between 1784 and 1789 (expansion of the

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christianity, Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is us ...

, building of new ''soboty''). The interior of the church is decorated with a

polychrome Polychrome is the "practice of decorating architectural elements, sculpture, etc., in a variety of colors." The term is used to refer to certain styles of architecture, pottery, or sculpture in multiple colors. When looking at artworks and ...

from 1494 (most likely the oldest polychrome of its type in

, representing the oldest collection of representative paintings in

), and later expanded in 1864.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Assumption of Holy Mary Church, Haczow World Heritage Sites in Poland Brzozów County

Wooden churches in Poland