360 :: a spherical panoramic journey in 2668 pieces

"As the first part of its double-barrelled name suggests, Stary Sącz is the oldest town in the region and owes its existence to 13th-century Princess Kinga, wife of King Bolesław Wstydliwy (Bolesław the Shy), who in the 1270s founded the convent of the Poor Clares here. After the king's death, Kinga entered the convent, where she lived for the last 13 years of her life, becoming its first abbess. [...] Equally splendid is the Church of the Poor Clares, a short walk from the parish church. Surrounded by a high defensive wall, this was the birthplace of the town. The church, originally Gothic and completed in 1332, also ended up with opulent Baroque fittings. The traces of its creator are clearly visible: the Baroque frescoes in the nave depict scenes from the life of Blessed Kinga, and her chapel on the south side boasts a 1470 statue of her on the altar. The pulpit (1671) on the opposite wall is an extraordinary piece of art." (Neal Bedford: Lonely Planet's Poland Country Guide, 2008).

"The earliest mentions of Powroźnik date back to the 14th century. The name of the village probably refers to its villagers’ main activity: growing hemp to be used for making rope. After 1565, when the village was re-chartered under Wallachian law, Powroźnik was inhabited by settlers of Ruthenian origin (referred to as the Lemkos since the 19th century). This community went about erecting a church, which was consecrated on October 5th, 1600. On June 18th of 1607, work on the paintings decorating the interior of the sanctuary – the holiest place in the Orthodox church, or the space where the Eucharist is kept – was completed. Traditionally, this space is not accessible to the congregation, which is separated from it by an iconostasis. [...]

The church in Powroźnik is a classic example of Lemko Orthodox churches. It is representative of the north-western style, whose examples may be found throughout Poland (the western and central area of Lemko settlement) and in Slovakia, by the border with Poland: it is wooden and shingled, with a timber frame structure and a post-frame tower. The church faces eastwards and is subdivided into three parts: it consists of a chancel on an irregular rectangle plan, a four-sided nave that is broader than the other parts, and the women’s gallery on a square plan, above which there is a four-sided tower with a chamber section that bends forward. A semi-hexagonal vestry adjoins the chancel on the northern side, while a vestibule adjoins the women’s gallery on the eastern side. The chancel has two windows (on the northern and eastern walls), while the vestry has two (on the northern and southern walls), and the nave three (on the southern wall). The chancel is covered with flat vaulting and bed-moulding, and the vestry has mock barrel vaulting. Above the nave is tiered hipped vaulting, and the women’s gallery is covered with flat vaulting. There are ridged roofs above the chancel and vestry, and hipped roofs above the nave and tower. The tripartite division of the church is accentuated by bulbous domes topped with crosses that are located over the chancel, nave and women’s gallery." (Text taken from the 13th Małopolska Days of Cultural Heritage website).