CHURCH OF ST. HEDWIG OF SILESIA IN BIERDZANY

The wooden Church of Saint Hedwig of Silesia in Bierdzany, Turawa Municipality, is one of the many wooden churches included in the Opole Voivodeship’s Trail of Wooden Sacred Buildings. The first mention of a church in Bierdzany dates to the 15th century; however, the current building dates from 1711, as can be learned from an inscription on one of the wooden beams and from the transept foundation. The church is traditionally oriented and built on a cruciform plan, featuring a short chancel and a tower on the western side. The tower was originally topped with a tented roof, which was replaced by a spire in the 1930s. Inside the church are numerous Baroque polychrome scenes from the Old and New Testaments. The most famous painting of the local church is "Bierdzany Death", depicting Death (a skeleton with an hourglass) standing over a merchant. The church still has some of its 18th-century furnishings, including the high altar with statues of St Nicholas and St Martin, side altars commissioned and designed by the church’s founder, Anna Justina von Löwencron of Turawa, and a Baroque pulpit and baptismal font.