A wooden church from 1753-1756 in Bełk on the Wooden Architecture Route, with a polychrome uncovered during renovation.
St Mary Magdalene's Church in Bełk, in the Czerwionka-Leszczyny municipality, is a wooden church built in 1753-1756. It lies on the Wooden Architecture Route of the Silesian Voivodeship, in the Rybnik loop, and since 2007 it has no longer been a parish church, because the parish moved to the new church of St John Sarkander.
The first church on this site may have been built in 1305-1320, and the village had a church already in 1447. Its 17th-century wooden predecessor, dedicated to All Saints, was destroyed by fire; the high altar and pulpit were saved from it. The date of the present church was confirmed by dendrochronological research in 2013: the year 1753 appears on a beam in the sacristy. In 2008 moving the building to Wilchwy in Wodzisław Śląski was considered, but the residents objected, and in 2009 the provincial conservator decided that the church would remain in Bełk. In 2012-2016 a thorough renovation was carried out, during which part of the interior paintings was uncovered.
The nave is almost square, of log construction on fir and oak sills, the narrower chancel is closed on three sides, and the sacristy adjoins on the north. The main entrance leads through the west post-construction tower, topped with a belfry stage and a bulbous helmet. The roofs are covered with shingles, and the building is surrounded by eaves.
Inside you will find an early Baroque high altar with a painting of the patron saint and two late Gothic sculptures of St Catherine and St Barbara from around 1500, as well as a Baroque pulpit with figures of the Evangelists from the second half of the 17th century. The side altars date from 1870. The stone holy water stoup from 1657 bears the initials of the donor. The organ was built in 1847 by Johann Havel of Pyskowice. The ceiling is decorated with plant motifs and religious symbols: the Eye of Providence, Veronica's Veil, a Chi-Rho, a Marian monogram and a dove.
The church is surrounded by a former parish cemetery with gravestones mainly from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, enclosed by a stone wall. On it stand two Passion crosses from 1874 and 1878, and an oak recognised as a natural monument grows there. Among others, the children of John Baildon are buried here.
In the neighbourhood of the village lie historic manor houses and palaces, among others the palace in Leszczyny. To the church in Czerwionka-Leszczyny, the Church of St Andrew Bobola, it is a few kilometres.
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