Category: Architektura (en)

The rich and interesting past of Wąwolnica is documented in a piecemeal and fragmentary way by the collection of exhibits, which can be seen in the local museum. The exposition is located in the lower tier of the castle church built in the 14th century. The upper tier (rebuilt several times) is the Chapel of the Holy Mother of Kębło. The museum was established in 1995 on the initiative of the Board of the Society of Friends of Wąwolnica and the contemporary parish priest Jan Pęzioł.

As part of the permanent museum exhibition, one can see archaeological exhibits discovered in our area and handed over to the museum in a deposit for an indefinite period of time by the Department of Archaeology of the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin. As a result of the verification and survey archaeological research commissioned by the Society of Friends of Wąwolnica, the collections of the museum have been enriched; among other things, the collection of glassware (dated to the seventeenth century) has been acquired, which proves that a glass-making workshop operating on the basis of glass mass obtained in the area of today's village of Huta has been functioning at the royal station.
The collections of the museum are also under the care of the inhabitants of our commune. This is evidenced by a neolithic axe given by J. Struski and found during field work. The museum's collections include 18th century robes and liturgical vessels as well as old 17th century leather bound and well-preserved books. The 16th century sculpture of Christ attracts the eye with its beauty and expression of workmanship.

The rich past of Wąwolnica is evidenced by copies of documents, the originals of which are kept in the Archive of Old Files in Warsaw. These are, among others:
- a copy of the document in which King Kazimierz [Jagiellończyk] transfers in 1448. "At the request of the Wąwolnica townspeople, their town from the Polish law to the German municipal law in the Magdeburg variety (Cracow, 29 May 1448).
- a copy of the document in which King Sigismund Augustus relocates the city, i.e. transferring the city development in 1567 to another location and delineating a new one, i.e. the present Market Square (Piotrków, 2 May 1567)

Another group of exhibits are works of people connected with Wąwolnica through their birth or years spent there. The exhibition includes paintings by Zygmunt Bartkiewicz and Konrad Krzyżanowski
- a graduate of the School of Painting and Drawing in Warsaw. These are: "Wąwolnica Street" from 1933 and "Podzamcze in the Spring" from 1936. In the museum one can also see some works of sculpture and drawing by two artistically talented brothers: Józef and Stanisław Gosławski. Józef Gosławski spent three summer seasons: 1947
- 48 - 49 working on the conservation of a tenement house at St. Nicholas in Kazimierz Dolny on the Vistula River. Before he began conservation work, he made a detailed analysis of the fragments left over from the destruction and made a number of drawings. Some of them (donated by the family) are kept in our museum. (see http://goslawski.art.pl/)
The youngest tourists are very interested in the model of the 15th-century Wąwolnica, which was made in 1996 on the basis of discovered 15th-century court books.

Category: Architektura (en)

History

  The name of Wąwolnica derives from the word "wąwel, wawel", which once meant a hill surrounded by water. The topography of this place and the local legend about Krak as the founder of "Wawelnica" brings to mind associations with the Krakow Wawel Castle and may indicate a very distant metrics of the origins of this town. According to historical findings, the beginnings of the parish in Wąwolnica date back to the 11th and the first half of the 12th century, and the first reference comes from 1325. In the Middle Ages, there were two parish churches in Wąwolnica: St. Adalbert (at present the chapel of the Holy Mother of Kębło) and St. Mary Magdalene (the area of the present school). The act of erection "establishing" the parish church of St. Adalbert in place of the town chapel comes from 1342. Jan Długosz indicates that Casimir the Great was the founder of the church. The king and his successors were granted the patronage of the church. It was given in 1458 by Kazimierz Jagiellończyk to the Świętokrzyskie Benedictine monastery on Łysa Góra. Benedictine relations with the parish in Wąwolnica probably date back to earlier centuries, which can be indicated, among others, by the 19th century tradition of the Benedictine Fathers, according to which

"In 1027 the monks of our monastery performed a parish service in the newly founded and just to faith converted settlement [...] Wawelnica"

The original St. Adalbert's Church had two tiers, as well as the Holy Trinity Chapel in Lublin. It was made of brick, narrow, single-nave, identical in the plan with the present one, with beamed ceilings and a higher roof covered with shingle, with a sacristy on the north side. The documents from the visitation in 1603 mention a new wooden nave with three windows on the south side, the whole church was covered with a beam and polychrome ceiling, and the chancel opening had a carved passion.

St. Adalbert's Church was extended to the west by a wooden nave, and the former brick part became a chancel. Perhaps the fire in 1567, which did not save the church buildings, indirectly contributed to the reconstruction. Using what survived, the temple was later extended. In a short period of time, the wooden single-nave corpus was changed into a brick one, also a three-bay one, with a pair of chapels, giving the church a plan of the cross. The church was decorated with paintings and equipped with five altars funded by Bishop Tomasz Oborski. Their consecration was made in 1638. Perhaps the stone portal connecting the presbytery with the sacristy comes from this period.

The church was rebuilt by the Benedictines, and the new altars of St. Cross and St. Benedict, directly related to them, are important: This was followed by a much later report on the existence of abbots and abbes of the Benedictine Order in the walls. During the Swedish deluge the church was devastated and robbed. This is evidenced by a visitation in 1675. The next one in 1721 mentions only the brick and stone church on the plan of the cross. A similarly short mention can be found in the description of the Wąwolnica Starosty when it was handed over to Antoni and Katarzyna Małachowski. An important fact is the relocation in 1700, with the Pope's consent, to the church of St. Adalbert of the XV century, part of the Gothic cycle of Beautiful Madonnas, the figure of the Holy Mother of Kębło, from the former temple in Kębło, due to the great cult that this miraculous figure was and is being followed. The presence of the statue in the main altar of the former St. Adalbert's Church is confirmed by a visitation in 1781. The visitation in 1799 describes the interior of the church with whitened walls and paintings. In 1819, the Benedictine congregation was dissolved. The former church of St. Adalbert fell into ruin. In 1843 the building was described as without a roof, with outlined vaults and walls, not suitable for reconstruction, but for demolition. At the same time, it was recommended to build a new church, and during it to build a temporary temple. However, the final decision was made to allow the renovation of the church. It took place only in 1853. The works were pro tem. Subsequent descriptions describe the further destruction of the church. A visitation from 1902 mentions that the church was covered with sheet metal. At the same time it describes the condition of the church as bad. The temple, in later years was in such a bad condition that it was decided to demolish it and build a new church, located in a large church cemetery.

In the years 1907-1914 a new church of St. Adalbert was built and the old church was demolished, leaving the presbytery, which means that the oldest church of St. Adalbert was reconstructed. . In 1924, the hill was developed and a fence was built, which finally covered the relics of the former form. After the nave of St. Adalbert's church was demolished, the presbytery part was open all the time, only later bricked up, which created a façade with western quoins buttress. In 1984 the chapel was extended to the west, with a newer Gothic façade.

Category: Architektura (en)

The church was built from parishioners' donations in the years 1907-1914. The cost estimate and designs were prepared by Ksawery Dionizy Drozdowski, assistant to the engineer and architect of the Lublin Province. The construction was organised by the parish priest Feliks Bialy. The new church was situated within the area of the church hill (formerly a castle hill), on the area of the church cemetery of the old temple and partly the parish garden. Its longitudinal axis is marked out perpendicularly to the axis of the former temple. For this reason, the old church had to be demolished, because its walls were only one metre from the newly built walls. Only the chancel was left as a chapel with the statue of the Holy Mother of Kębło. In 2001 Pope John Paul II elevated it to the dignity of a minor basilica. In the years 2011-12, thanks to the efforts of the present parish priest Jerzy Ważny, the basilica was thoroughly renovated.

The church is a neo-Gothic building made of red brick, with three naves. Next to the presbytery there is a sacristy, next to the nave there is one tower and a turret for the bell tower above the nave. Inside, there are altars adapted in style to the building: the main altar with the statue of the Holy Mother of Wąwolnica and side altars with paintings of Merciful Jesus, St. Stanislaus Kostka, St. Joseph and St. Francis. Twenty-voice organs in the music choir. A neo-Gothic baptismal font from 1966. In addition, the church is equipped with three bells from the Felczyńskis' bell-foundry in Przemyśl, consecrated in 1961 by the Lublin bishop Jan Kałwa.

Calendar

1027 – the first mention of the existence of a pastoral point in Wąwolnica
1325 – the first mention of the existence of St. Adalbert's parish
The 15th century. - Jan Długosz mentions the second parish of St. Mary Magdalene
1700 – transfer of the statue of the Holy Mother from Kębło to Wąwolnica
1819 – The end of the patronage of the Benedictine monastery
1830 – the parish is administered by diocesan priests
1907–1914 – construction of the present church
10 X 1978 – Coronation of the figure of the Holy Mother of Kębło
2001 – elevating the church in Wąwolnica to the rank of a minor basilica
2011 - 2012 - thorough renovation of the basilica