History
The church in Krzeczyn Wielki (Gross Krichen) was probably erected in the second half of the 13th century or in the first half of the 14th century. The first indirect information about it was recorded in documents only in 1373, when Johannes, the parish priest “in Crychin”, was mentioned. Another record concerned the year 1399 and a local priest named Henricus. At the end of the first quarter of the 16th century, the church was taken by the Protestant community, which carried out its early modern rebuilding in the next century. During this period, a chapel – mausoleum was added to the church. The renovation was recorded in 1860. After the destruction during the Second World War, the church was renovated only in the years 1959-1960. It changed than the dedication to St. Maria Dominica Mazzarello.
Architecture
The church was created as a building orientated towards the cardinal sides of the world, erected on a rectangular plan, with an aisleless nave, with a separate and also rectangular, but narrower and lower chancel. A massive four-sided tower was erected from the west, and a sacristy was attached to the chancel from the north. Neither the nave nor the chancel were buttressed, so it is not known whether the latter originally had a vault. The nave was probably covered with a wooden ceiling.
Current state
The church has preserved the spatial layout typical of rural parish churches from the 13th/14th century (rectangular nave with a lower and narrower rectangular chancel). The building is distinguished by an exceptionally massive western tower, currently the only one without plaster. The main entrance portal has Gothic features, but unfortunately all the windows of the church have been transformed and enlarged. The southern chapel with a vault based on a central pillar is an early modern addition.
bibliography:
Zabytki sztuki w Polsce. Śląsk, red. S.Brzezicki, C.Nielsen, Warszawa 2006.