Rustic hand-forged ironwork helps secure the inner porch doors of a restored rural Polish wooden church that was ravaged by fire in an arson attack in 1994. The Late Baroque Church of the Holy Cross at Rdzawka in Nowy Targ county, southern Poland, built in 1757, now has modern pews and fittings on its south side, with salvaged pews and fittings in the north nave opposite.
Rdzawka, Nowy Targ county, southern Poland: a padlock and rustic hand-forged ironwork, a twisted chain, hasp and staples, secure the inner porch doors to the mid-1700s wooden Church of the Holy Cross, which survived a devastating arson attack in 1994. The building was badly damaged when the arsonist set fire to its east and south sides. The fire spread quickly to the presbytery, roof and south nave, destroying them almost completely. The flames consumed many of the church’s original Baroque fittings; those that survived included two pieces of 18th century sculpture, a confessional and some pews and these are now in the north nave. Holy Cross, built of logs in 1757, was founded by a wealthy merchant as a thanksgiving for his salvation from brigands or highwaymen who attacked him in thick woodland as he travelled to Hungary. The merchant, probably Jan Wielopolski, governor of Sandomierz, told how he fell to his knees as the brigands threatened him, raised his hands and cried “Holy Cross, Save Me!”. A shining cross then appeared in the sky and the outlaws either fled in terror or, as one legend claimed, were turned to stone. The church stands on the site of a late-1600s pilgrimage chapel in a place variously known as Chabówka, Obidowa or Piatkowa Mountain. Nearby, a holy well supplied water said to treat all diseases. The site lies beside the old carriage road to Zakopane, now a busy highway heading south from the city of Kraków to the Tatra Mountains and Poland’s border with Slovakia. Emigration cost Rdzawka most of its inhabitants in the mid-1800s, but their village church remains.
Size: 4256px × 2832px
Location: Rdzawka, Nowy Targ county, southern Poland.
Photo credit: © Terence Kerr / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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