DOI article:
Adamski, Jakub: An allusion to a cathedral in a rural foundation: on the iconography of the architecture of the sixteenth-century parish church in Brochów
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51757#0018
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JAKUB ADAMSKI
Battista of Venice, whose signature were lesene gables with horizontal divisions and semicircular crowns,
which were quite different in their character from the Brochów gables.28 It must be noted that the latter
were built of bricks in the Flemish bond, whereas the Italian architect and his team consistently used
the monk bond.29 By the same token, it may be assumed that the cemetery wall on a regular square
plan, which surrounds a large area around the church and has a defensive character (Fig. 3, 11, 12), is
a slightly later addition. This wall is built in the cross bond; it has arrow-slits and comer half-towers
on a ground plan typical of bastions. There are no sufficient reasons, however, to date its construction
to as late as the 17th century.30 As correctly stated by Jerzy Żmudziński, defensive structures around the
church constitute an integral part of the architectural conception, which was certainly delineated by the
founder and the designing architect at the outset of the construction works in the middle 16th century.31
Why this element of the complex was constructed as the last, after the construction of the church was
wholly completed, is, however, quite clear.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CHURCH AND THE PERSON OF ITS FOUNDER
The above description clearly indicates how very complex, and how very surprising, at least in
a village parish church, is the spatial and functional programme of the edifice in question. The very fact
that a large three-nave basilica with a two-tower faęade - a description that evokes a stately town or
collegiate church, or even a cathedral - had been built in Brochów is surprising in itself. An overwhelming
majority of village churches built in this part of Europe during the later Middle Ages had only single nave
and was provided with, at most, a single tower. If, however, Gothic parish churches with thee naves had
from time to time been built in rural centres, they were usually very small (such as, e.g., the primitively
constructed late 15th-century hall churches in Central and Western Pomerania: in Sadlno near Trzebiatów,
Osieki near Koszalin, Stare Sławsko near Sławno, Sarbia near Kołobrzeg and Łącko near Darłów)32, or
their more impressive form resulted from their function of a pilgrimage centre (as in the case of, e.g.,
the hall church in Piaseczno near Gniew, in construction from 1348 onwards).33
It would be stating the obvious to say that the imposing spatial programme and the truly monumental
size of the Brochów church indicate how high were the aspirations of its founder Jan Brochowski of the
Prawdzie coat of arms. Unfortunately, the surviving sources do not yield any information regarding his
personality and intellectual capacity, whereas old Polish armorials report only the relevant family links.34
It is, therefore, necessary to review the history of the village itself.
Brochów is one of the oldest knightly estates in Mazovia. According to genealogical sources dating
from the early 17th century, certainly based on oral tradition, the ancestor of the local line of the Prawdzie
family was a knight named Andreas from the family of Rhineland counts von Dinhein, who in the year
1123 came to Poland to support Boleslaus the Wrymouth in his many campaigns. Having gained fame
as a warrior, he allegedly settled in Mazovia and married the daughter of Jan Prawda of Szczawin and
Trąbki, the land judge of Gostynin, thus giving rise to the Prawdzie family.35 This legend does not find
28 Kunkel, Jan Baptysta..., pp. 29-30.
29 Ibidem, pp. 34, 36.
30 Cf.: KZSzP - Sochaczew, pp. 5-6. Christofer Herrmann’s reasons for dating the construction of the defensive wall to as late
as the 18th century are entirely unclear; Cf. Herrmann, Masowien, p. 534.
31 Żmudziński, op. cit., s. 30. It must be emphasised that the conjectural dating of the defensive wall in Brochów to the middle
of the 16th century is not contradicted by the bastion-like shape of the comer towers, as in Italy regular bastions on a sharp-angled
ground plan began to be constructed in the late 15th century.
32 See M. Ober, Mittelalterliche Dorfkirchen, [in:] Mittelalterliche Architektur..., Bd. 2, pp. 830-831.
33 See Architektura gotycka..., p. 184 [note by A. Rzempołuch]; C. Herrmann, Deutschordensland Preußen, [in:] Mittelal-
terliche Architektur..., Bd. 2, pp. 1007-1008.
34 See Herbarz polski Kacpra Niesieckiego S.J. powiększony dodatkami z późniejszych autorów, rękopisów, dowodów urzędowych,
ed. J.N. Bobrowicz, vol. 2, Leipzig 1839, pp. 293-294; A. Boniecki, Herbarz polski, vol. 2, Warsaw 1900, p. 122; S. Uruski, Rodzina.
Herbarz szlachty polskiej, vol. 1, Warsaw 1904, pp. 389-390.
35 S. Okolski, Orbis polonus, vol. 2, In Quo Antiqua Sarmatarum Gentilitia & Arma Qualunque a litera L, usque ad literam R,
inclusiue, suam incipiunt & recensent denominationem, continentur & dilucidantur, Cracoviae 1643, pp. 497—498; see also Herbarz
polski Kacpra Niesieckiego S.J. powiększony dodatkami z późniejszych autorów, rękopismów, dowodów urzędowych, ed. J.N. Bobrowicz,
vol. 7, Leipzig 1841, pp. 489—490.
JAKUB ADAMSKI
Battista of Venice, whose signature were lesene gables with horizontal divisions and semicircular crowns,
which were quite different in their character from the Brochów gables.28 It must be noted that the latter
were built of bricks in the Flemish bond, whereas the Italian architect and his team consistently used
the monk bond.29 By the same token, it may be assumed that the cemetery wall on a regular square
plan, which surrounds a large area around the church and has a defensive character (Fig. 3, 11, 12), is
a slightly later addition. This wall is built in the cross bond; it has arrow-slits and comer half-towers
on a ground plan typical of bastions. There are no sufficient reasons, however, to date its construction
to as late as the 17th century.30 As correctly stated by Jerzy Żmudziński, defensive structures around the
church constitute an integral part of the architectural conception, which was certainly delineated by the
founder and the designing architect at the outset of the construction works in the middle 16th century.31
Why this element of the complex was constructed as the last, after the construction of the church was
wholly completed, is, however, quite clear.
THE ARCHITECTURE OF THE CHURCH AND THE PERSON OF ITS FOUNDER
The above description clearly indicates how very complex, and how very surprising, at least in
a village parish church, is the spatial and functional programme of the edifice in question. The very fact
that a large three-nave basilica with a two-tower faęade - a description that evokes a stately town or
collegiate church, or even a cathedral - had been built in Brochów is surprising in itself. An overwhelming
majority of village churches built in this part of Europe during the later Middle Ages had only single nave
and was provided with, at most, a single tower. If, however, Gothic parish churches with thee naves had
from time to time been built in rural centres, they were usually very small (such as, e.g., the primitively
constructed late 15th-century hall churches in Central and Western Pomerania: in Sadlno near Trzebiatów,
Osieki near Koszalin, Stare Sławsko near Sławno, Sarbia near Kołobrzeg and Łącko near Darłów)32, or
their more impressive form resulted from their function of a pilgrimage centre (as in the case of, e.g.,
the hall church in Piaseczno near Gniew, in construction from 1348 onwards).33
It would be stating the obvious to say that the imposing spatial programme and the truly monumental
size of the Brochów church indicate how high were the aspirations of its founder Jan Brochowski of the
Prawdzie coat of arms. Unfortunately, the surviving sources do not yield any information regarding his
personality and intellectual capacity, whereas old Polish armorials report only the relevant family links.34
It is, therefore, necessary to review the history of the village itself.
Brochów is one of the oldest knightly estates in Mazovia. According to genealogical sources dating
from the early 17th century, certainly based on oral tradition, the ancestor of the local line of the Prawdzie
family was a knight named Andreas from the family of Rhineland counts von Dinhein, who in the year
1123 came to Poland to support Boleslaus the Wrymouth in his many campaigns. Having gained fame
as a warrior, he allegedly settled in Mazovia and married the daughter of Jan Prawda of Szczawin and
Trąbki, the land judge of Gostynin, thus giving rise to the Prawdzie family.35 This legend does not find
28 Kunkel, Jan Baptysta..., pp. 29-30.
29 Ibidem, pp. 34, 36.
30 Cf.: KZSzP - Sochaczew, pp. 5-6. Christofer Herrmann’s reasons for dating the construction of the defensive wall to as late
as the 18th century are entirely unclear; Cf. Herrmann, Masowien, p. 534.
31 Żmudziński, op. cit., s. 30. It must be emphasised that the conjectural dating of the defensive wall in Brochów to the middle
of the 16th century is not contradicted by the bastion-like shape of the comer towers, as in Italy regular bastions on a sharp-angled
ground plan began to be constructed in the late 15th century.
32 See M. Ober, Mittelalterliche Dorfkirchen, [in:] Mittelalterliche Architektur..., Bd. 2, pp. 830-831.
33 See Architektura gotycka..., p. 184 [note by A. Rzempołuch]; C. Herrmann, Deutschordensland Preußen, [in:] Mittelal-
terliche Architektur..., Bd. 2, pp. 1007-1008.
34 See Herbarz polski Kacpra Niesieckiego S.J. powiększony dodatkami z późniejszych autorów, rękopisów, dowodów urzędowych,
ed. J.N. Bobrowicz, vol. 2, Leipzig 1839, pp. 293-294; A. Boniecki, Herbarz polski, vol. 2, Warsaw 1900, p. 122; S. Uruski, Rodzina.
Herbarz szlachty polskiej, vol. 1, Warsaw 1904, pp. 389-390.
35 S. Okolski, Orbis polonus, vol. 2, In Quo Antiqua Sarmatarum Gentilitia & Arma Qualunque a litera L, usque ad literam R,
inclusiue, suam incipiunt & recensent denominationem, continentur & dilucidantur, Cracoviae 1643, pp. 497—498; see also Herbarz
polski Kacpra Niesieckiego S.J. powiększony dodatkami z późniejszych autorów, rękopismów, dowodów urzędowych, ed. J.N. Bobrowicz,
vol. 7, Leipzig 1841, pp. 489—490.