
The village in the Swarzędz commune (Poznań district) is located on the Główna river, some 6 km to the north-east of Swarzędz.
Today's temple was erected before 1589 - the nave and the chancel originate from that time. The tower was erected in the years 1771-78. The connection between the ground floor the tower and the interior of the temple was built during the Interwar period. During a renovation in the 1970s the walls were covered with wood panelling and the Baroque pulpit was dismantled. Currently it functions as casing for the reader's stand in the chancel.
At the 17th century main altar one can see a painting of Madonna with Child. What sets it apart from many other such depictions is the inscription at the bottom of the painting:
This painting was crafted for the Wierzenice church,
We ask for God's grace for Bartłomiej of Kłecko,
He was a wheelwright and lived for a few years in the inn,
Before death he gave a pair of cattle for the painting.
On the left side of the inscription a figure of the founder Bartłomiej is visible, and on the right side his workshop and the mentioned pair of cattle. On both sides of the altar there are statues of Saint Adalbert and Saint Nicholas from the same period.
On the left side altar there is a late Gothic sculpture of Christ on the Cross surrounded by painted depictions of Madonna and Saint John the Apostle. On the altar on the right side there is a painting of Saint Philip Neri at the bottom and higher up of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. On the northern wall there is a painting of Madonna of the Veil painting from 17th century - a copy of the work by Guido Reni. In the painting Madonna wraps baby Jesus with a veil, which by analogy with the shroud anticipates his subsequent death.
On the side of the church there is a gravestone of the Cieszkowski family, in the form of a portal with bronze doors. It was made in 1872 by Teofil Lenartowicz, who resided in Florence and was known more as a poet than a sculptor. The doors were made in two casts. One of them adorns the gravestone of August Cieszkowski's mother - Zofia née Kwilecka in the Sante Croce Church in Florence, the other one is located in the Wierzenice temple. For this work Lenartowicz was awarded the Order of Merit at the World Exposition in Vienna. The figures depicted on the doors symbolically represent the passage from the world of death to the world of life and are a story of death and resurrection. The ornamental strip separating the door leaves contains scenes which, when read from the bottom to the top, make up the Lord's Prayer.
The building is located on the Trail of Wooden Churches around the Zielonka Forest.
Address:
Wierzenica 12
62-006 Wierzenica
Tel. +48 61 897 33 04