A Baroque parish church from 1691-1694 in Tworków, with a crypt of the former owners of the village and 17th-century sarcophagi.
The Church of the Apostles St Peter and St Paul in Tworków is a Baroque parish church from the end of the 17th century, standing on a hill in the centre of the village. It has been entered in the heritage register since 1955. Beneath the church is the crypt of the Reisswitz family, the former owners of Tworków, and in a side chapel you can see historic sarcophagi and coffins.
The first mentions of a church in Tworków date from 1339. When on 2 May 1676 a fire destroyed the church, the rectory and some of the buildings, a temporary wooden church stood in the village until the early 1690s. Construction of the present church began on 6 April 1691. Until 1692 the work was directed by Master Graffenrenter, and from then until completion in 1694 by the builder Jan Zeller of Opava. The consecration in 1697 was performed by the Wrocław auxiliary bishop Johann Brunetti.
In 1945 the church was damaged during the fighting, and the tower and roof were destroyed. They were repaired in 1946-1948, and in the 1990s a thorough renovation was carried out.
The church is of plastered brick, with a single nave and a straight-ended chancel. On the west side stands a four-storey tower with a bulbous spire, and the elevations are decorated with pilasters and lesenes. In niches on the south elevation stand sculptures of Saints Peter and Paul, probably moved from the palace. The chancel arch is decorated with the Reisswitz coat of arms.
Most of the furnishings are Baroque and come from the 17th and 18th centuries: a high altar with paintings, three side altars (of St Margaret, of Christ in Distress and, late Baroque, of St John of Nepomuk), a pulpit, a font and a wooden patron's box.
In the southern part of the nave there is a crypt, a remnant of the earlier church and the burial place of members of the Reisswitz family. In September 1993 a group of 17th-century sarcophagi was discovered in it, and since 1998 the side chapel, the former mortuary, has served as a display of sarcophagi and coffins from the crypt.
In the cemetery around the church many historic gravestones have survived, among them the grave of the parish priest Augustyn Weltzel (1817-1879), author of historical studies on Upper Silesia. By the gate stand a Baroque figure of St Florian from 1751 and a Neo-Gothic sculpture of the Passion from the second half of the 19th century.
Right next door, about 400 metres away, stands the palace in Tworków.
Two kilometres from here is the village's other church, St Urban's Church.
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