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.