Late Renaissance church built in 1617-1626, brick, erected from the foundation of Piotr Wiesiolowski. Inside late Baroque furnishings funded by JanThe church of St. Klemens Branicki. Originally, the temple had a late Gothic character with elements of the Mazovian-Lithuanian Renaissance. The walls of the church covered with polychrome from 1751 made by Antoni Herliczka. The main altar is wooden, covered with white polychrome with gilding. Above the altar hangs a painting of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, painted by Augustyn Mirys, a Baroque artist who worked at the Branicki court. Above the painting is the eye of Divine Providence. Below, a mensa with a tabernacle (similar to Bernini's tabernacle in Rome). The antepedium, is a shallow panel with Rococo carvings, which is an iconographic rarity, as apocryphal themes were used here during the Enlightenment. The central scene of the antepedium depicts the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary; on the right is the prophet Elijah; on the left ? a man facing Mary. On either side of the main altar are sculptures of St. Peter and St. Paul from 1751 by Jacob Fontana or Jan Jakub Plersch. In addition to the main altar, the church has an altar of Jesus Crucified. On the wall of the Old Church hangs the Epitaph of Izabella Branicka. It is an embroidered fabric in a beautiful frame from 1811, made by a friend of the "Lady of Cracow." On top of the Epitaph is an alabaster vase containing mementos dear to Izabella's heart. The temple has a late Baroque organ funded by Jan Klemens Branicki and built in 1753 by Antoni Wierzbowski of Warsaw. There are 3 plaques hanging on the walls of the Old Parish Church. The first commemorates the foundation of the church in 1617 with the words "In honor of God Most High the Holy Trinity, the Blessed Virgin Mary and All Saints, the temple was erected from the foundations by Piotr Wiesiołowski Marshal of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, starosta of Kaunas, Tykocin" (original in Latin). The second commemorative of Franciszek Karpiński with the words "In this Church for the first time sounded "Devotional Songs" by Franciszek Karpiński (1741-1825). When the morning rises, All our daily affairs, God is born, Song of Divine Mercy, before they appeared in Suprasl in the annex of the Basilian Fathers in 1792.... " The plaque was founded on the 175th anniversary of the poet's death. The third with information about the consecration of this temple on the second Sunday after Easter in 1664. The church was the family mausoleum of the Gryfit-Branicki family. The tombstone to the right of the altar is dedicated to the memory of Jan Klemens' grandmother and father ? the hearts of Crown Marshal Katarzyna Aleksandra of Czarnecki Branicka (d. 1698) and Stefan Mikołaj Branicki (d. 1709) are buried here. This sarcophagus (designed by Kacper Bażanka) is built of black Dębicki marble (partly also pink). Above the sarcophagus is a cartouche, made of gilded copper plate, with the family crests: Griffin (of the Branicki family), Fox (of the Sapieh family) and Boat (of the Czarnecki family) and a crown. On either side of the cartouche are angelic putti holding the attributes of transience ? an hourglass and a human skull. This mausoleum was founded by the wife of Stefan Mikolaj, and at the same time the mother of Jan Klemens ? Katarzyna Scholastyka née Sapiecha Branicka. The second tombstone is located on the opposite side of the altar (relative to the first tombstone) and was founded by Izabella of Poniatowski. The tombstone was made in Rome and then brought to Poland. It is built of Italian multicolored marble and gilded bronze. Buried in it is the heart of Jan Klemens Branicki (d. 1771). The urn is supported by coat-of-arms Griffins, and the whole is closed by a pyramid with a gilded medallion with Branicki's profile. The tombstone also features trophies of Hetman's power (including: helmet with plume, saber and mace). In the vaults of the Old Church there are crypts, among them "the crypt of the founders" in which rest, among others: Katarzyna Poniatowska (d. 1772, rococo coffin, richly gilded) and Izabella of Poniatowski Branicka (classicist coffin of mahogany wood). Other crypts contain the coffins of Archbishop Edward Ropp (d. 1939, brought to Bialystok in 1983), bishop of the diocese of Minsk-Mohylev, and Archbishop Edward Kisiel (d. 1993).
29.09.2013
