View east towards the altar of a 1700s village church partly rebuilt and fully restored after being ravaged by fire in a 1994 arson attack. The Baroque wooden Church of the Holy Cross at Rdzawka in Nowy Targ county, southern Poland, built in 1757, now has salvaged pews and fittings down its north (left) side and only modern fittings in the south nave seen here to the right.
Rdzawka, Nowy Targ county, southern Poland: looking east down the carpeted central nave to the altar of the mid-1700s Late Baroque wooden Church of the Holy Cross, rebuilt and restored after a devastating arson attack in October 1994. The church, built in 1757 of logs, was founded by a rich merchant as a thanksgiving for his salvation from brigands 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 building was badly damaged when the arsonist set fire to its east and south sides in 1994. The fire spread quickly to the presbytery, roof and south nave, which were almost completely destroyed. The flames also consumed many of the original Baroque fittings; those that survived are now ranged along the north nave (on the left in this image), with only modern fittings in the south nave to the right. The survivals include two pieces of 18th century sculpture, a confessional and some pews. The church stands 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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