The Collegiate church of Saint Martin in Opatow is the Romanesque church of Saint

Martin of Tours Martin of Tours (; 316/3368 November 397) was the third bishop of Tours. He is the patron saint of many communities and organizations across Europe, including France's Third French Republic, Third Republic. A native of Pannonia (present-day Hung ...

placed in

Opatów Opatów (; ) is a town in southeastern Poland, within Opatów County in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Province). Historically, it was part of a greater region called Lesser Poland. In 2012 the population was 6,658. Opatów is located ...

, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship 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 ...

. It is the most valuable monument in Opatow, and has been described as one of the most precious relics of Roman architecture in Poland. In 2023, the church was designated an official Polish

Historic Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, historical ...

History

Collegiate Church of Saint Martin in Opatow 1899

The church possesses the status of

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons, a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, headed by a dignitary bearing ...

: the first mention by canons from Opatów comes from the year 1206. It is not known who was the real founder of this temple. Several people claim, according to

Jan Długosz Jan Długosz (; 1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480), also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first histo ...

, that the son of

Bolesław Krzywousty Bolesław or Boleslav may refer to: People * Bolesław (given name) (also ''Boleslav'' or ''Boleslaus''), including a list of people with this name Geography * Bolesław, Dąbrowa County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland * Bolesław, Olkusz Coun ...

, the duke Henryk Sandomierski and crusader, built the

monastery A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of Monasticism, monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in Cenobitic monasticism, communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a ...

for use by

Knights Templar The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon, mainly known as the Knights Templar, was a Military order (religious society), military order of the Catholic Church, Catholic faith, and one of the most important military ord ...

from Jerusalem. Others attribute the church to the

Cistercian The Cistercians (), officially the Order of Cistercians (, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict, as well as the contri ...

s, the Benedictines, or to Alojzy Dunin, the son of famous Peter. Interior Church of St

The temple is built in the Romanesque style, and it contains many Gothic elements as well as later Renaissance and

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

details. There are two towers from the western side. The south, Romanesque one, built of the stone cut, it marks out with Romanesque little windows. Second tower, built later, has a simpler shape. There is a Romanesque main portal between the towers with a Gothic portal placed on it. Next to the portal, there are traces of covered entry are with three arcades. The Romanesque portal remained also in northern church-porch, which contains a Gothic-Renaissance

portal Portal may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), a series of video games developed by Valve ** ''Portal'' (video game), a 2007 video game, the first in the series ** '' Portal 2'', the 2011 sequel ** '' Portal Stori ...

from 1514. It became decorated with floral motives, in which the coats of arms "Swan" and "Odrowąż" were put in the composition . The former Romanesque little windows in the side naves of collegiate church are covered. There are covered Romanesque little windows in the side naves of the collegiate church. The main aisle of building comes probably from XVI age. It is covered by late-Gothic

barrel vault A barrel vault, also known as a tunnel vault, wagon vault or wagonhead vault, is an architectural element formed by the extrusion of a single curve (or pair of curves, in the case of a pointed barrel vault) along a given distance. The curves are ...

. It has replaced a primitive wooden ceiling. The interior of church is covered by the baroque

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 XVIII age. The historic paintings are visible in the walls of presbytery. The walls of main aisle, over arcades, were covered with the allegorical scenes, and on the vault, there are scenes from St. Martin's life. The equipment of interior of collegiate church comes from XVIII age. In the altar on the prolongation of right south nave there is the painting of Divine Mother with Jesus from XVI age.

References

Opatów Romanesque architecture in Poland

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