OSIECZNA
Sieczna is a town in the Leszno district (powiat), located 12 km north-east of Leszno, by the road to Śrem.
St. Valentine’s/Franciscans Reformats’ cloister church
The Franciscans Reformats monks were brought in to Osieczna in 1622 by Adam Olbracht Przyjemski who had them settled at a tiny St. Valentine’s chapel off the town limits. A small wooden monastery was built ca. 1630, followed by a brick building erected in 1680–1682. The church as it stands today was built in 1729–1733, as designed by Pompeo Ferarri; the monastery was rebuilt at roughly the same time.
The convent is part of the Poznań-based Franciscan Province of St. Francis of Assisi.
The baroque one-nave St. Valentine’s church is covered by a gable roof, with a predominant an ave-bell pinnacle above it. A barrel vault with lunettes covers the nave, the presbytery being furnished with an arched vault. A figural polychrome from ca. mid-18th century is to be seen on the vaults. A sacristry is behind the altar, above which a monastic loft is set on an upper storey. The interior’s uniform-style rococo furnishings were made by Antoni Schultz of Rawicz in 1784–1787, one of his works being an expressive crucifix contained in the main altar. The side altar on the left (behind a bar) embraces an icon of Our Lady of Sorrows (so-called Our Lady of Osieczna) from 1st half of 17th century, adorned with papal crowns in 1976. The side altar on the right displays an early-baroque painting of St. Valentine, dating to the same time and painted by Franciszek Smuglewicz.
A two-storey cloister building with modest baroque traits is adjacent to the church at the north, its wings (together with the church building) embracing a rectangular garth with an ambulatory.
For more, read at:
http://www.franciszkanie.net/artykuly/58,english_version/
Address:
ul. Frankiewicza 4
64-113 Osieczna
Tel. +48 65 535 01 73
