St Barbara's Church in Bielsko-Biała

St Barbara's Church stands in Mikuszowice Krakowskie, a district of Bielsko-Biała, on ul. Cyprysowa. It is a wooden church from 1690, listed in the heritage register, still a parish church today and counted as part of the old rural sacred architecture in the Silesian-Lesser Poland style. It lies on the main route of the Wooden Architecture Trail of the Silesian Voivodeship.

How the present church came about

The present church is the successor of two earlier ones. The first church was probably built in the 13th or early 14th century and fell victim to a flood in the mid-15th century. The second was erected in 1455 from pine wood and burned down after being struck by lightning on 7 April 1687.

Construction of the present church was completed in 1690, and it was consecrated in 1692. The commissioner was the parish priest of Łodygowice, Urban Kupiszowski, and the builder was the town carpenter Piotr Piotrowski, who used larch wood. In 1796 the church authorities put the building up for auction, and it was bought by peasants from Mikuszowice and the surrounding villages. A separate parish of St Barbara was established in 1965.

The shape of the building

The church has a log and post construction. It consists of a small, almost square nave, a hexagonal chancel and a sacristy on the east side. The roof is steep, in two parts, covered with shingles, and the church is surrounded by enclosed sobota arcades. The wooden tower dates from 1851 and was raised in 1870. The belfry joined to the nave on the north side has a post construction.

Above the side entrance, in a niche, hangs a painting of St Barbara with her attributes: a tower and a sword. To the east the church is adjoined by a cemetery from the mid-18th century with a beam fence from 1748, a stone crucifix and several Polish gravestones from the 19th century.

Polychromes and altars

The interior is covered with Baroque polychromes, painted in 1723 by the Bielsko painter Johann Mentil. Their basis is a cycle of eight scenes from the legend of St Barbara, separated by Ionic pilasters. The scenes are captioned in Latin and in the local Silesian-Lesser Poland dialect, and the colours are light and pastel, as on old tapestries. Mentil's signature is on a ceiling beam beneath the choir loft.

The high altar holds a copy of a Gothic triptych, known as the Mikuszowice triptych. The original was made around 1470, probably in Kraków, and in 1935 went to the National Museum in Kraków. The copy was placed in the church in 1987. The central panel shows the sending out of the apostles, and the wings depict Saints Gregory, Jerome, Augustine and Ambrose.

In the left side altar stands a Gothic wooden figure of the Virgin and Child from the first half of the 15th century, counted among the Silesian Beautiful Madonnas. The organ dates from 1895.

By the church

On ul. Cyprysowa stand a stone wayside figure from 1846 and a polychrome, gilded stone cross from 1874. In the churchyard garden is a modern wooden chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Cyprysowa 25, Bielsko-Biała (Mikuszowice Krakowskie).
• This is an active parish church. It is best to check the rules for entering the interior outside services with the parish; its website has tabs for Services and the Office.
• The northern part of the sobota arcades is open to worshippers from the side entrance and the sacristy.
• A few kilometres away, in the city centre, stands St Nicholas's Cathedral.
• In the centre there is also the Castle of the Sułkowski Princes.