Polski
You don't have to be an expert in architecture or an art historian to feel that the church in Szydłowiec, located in the southern part of the market square, was built many centuries ago.
The brick temple, built of the famous local sandstone, replaced the wooden church from the beginning of the 15th century.
Its construction began in 1493 on the initiative of Jakub Szydłowiecki. It was completed in the 1620s by Mikołaj - the Great Crown Treasurer and the Castellan of Radom. It was he who was responsible for bringing the relics of Saint Sigismund from distant Prague and for building the tomb chapel of the Szydłowiecki family.
The building of the church is distinguished by a high, tiled nave and a slightly lower, east-facing chancel. The stepped gables of the nave are decorated with coats of arms of Mikołaj Szydłowiecki.
Inside, pay attention to the rather unusual for Gothic flat, larch ceiling of the nave, which is decorated with paintings depicting saints, including the patron of the church.
The rather austere body of the church clearly contrasts with the richly decorated interior of the temple, about which there is a saying "in the parish church in Szydlowiec, the altars are golden".
Pay attention to the late-Gothic triptych mounted in the main altar and the polyptych consisting of almost 20 paintings in the northern wall of the presbytery. The tombstone of Mikołaj Szydłowiecki, made in the workshop of the creator of the Wawel Sigismund Chapel, Bartolemeo Berecci, will certainly catch your attention.
Next to the northern entrance you will find an interesting tombstone of the last of the Radziwiłł rulers of Szydłowiec: Mikołaj and his wife. The figure of a woman made of white marble contrasts clearly with the black plinth. It is worth mentioning that the love story of this couple inspired Helena Mniszkówna, the author of the famous novel "Leper".
It is worth visiting the church on one of the holiday Fridays, when concerts are held as part of the traditional international festival of organ and chamber music.
