St Clement's Church in Ustroń

St Clement's Church is a parish church in Ustroń, in Cieszyn Silesia, with a late Baroque-neoclassical body and a square tower with a clock. It was built in 1788 in the rebuilt chapel of a former Jesuit orphanage, and today it is entered in the heritage register.

Earlier churches

The parish in Ustroń is mentioned from 1447. An earlier wooden church, probably from 1444, stood on the site of today's old Catholic cemetery. During the Reformation it passed into Protestant hands, and Catholics regained it in 1654 as a branch of Goleszów. In 1784 it was closed because of its poor condition, and in 1787 it was pulled down.

The present church

A separate parish was established in 1785. The chapel of the former orphanage was rebuilt in the late Baroque-neoclassical style and consecrated on 23 September 1788, and the first parish priest was Fr Franciszek Teodor Entzendorfer, a former Jesuit from Skoczów. A brick tower was built in place of a wooden one in 1835-1837, and in 1846 the nave and chancel were widened; the church has kept this form to this day. The chancel faces west, and the three-aisled body with a transept has sail vaults with distinct ribs. The gable roof is covered with sheet metal, and the tower is crowned with a domed helm with a clock.

Furnishings

The interior is decorated with a Baroque-neoclassical pulpit, a baptismal font and a 19th-century painting of St Clement. The organ from the early 20th century was built by the Rieger company with pneumatic action. The painted wooden Stations of the Cross from 1893 were made by Josef Riffeser of St Ulrich in South Tyrol and have been renovated. In front of the church stand stone figures of St John Nepomuk and St Joseph with the Child, made at the end of the 18th century by Wacław Donay of Skoczów. On the north side the former Jesuit orphanage of 1740 adjoins the church.

Nearby

Nearby are the Church of St James the Greater, the Jan Jarocki Ustroń Museum and the Pump Room in Zawodzie.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Ignacego Daszyńskiego 15, Ustroń.
• The church is active as a parish church; the interiors are visited outside services.