Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Harklowa

The wooden church in Harklowa was built in the second half of the 15th century and belongs to a group of late Gothic Podhale churches. It stands on the Wooden Architecture Route of the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, and since 1930 it has been entered in the heritage register.

What it is built of and how

The church is a wooden building of log construction: single-nave, tripartite, with boarded walls. The chancel, as in other Podhale churches, has a rectangular end, and the sacristy adjoins it on the north. The shingled roof is crowned by a Neo-Gothic turret for a sanctus bell added in 1877. The mass is dominated by a 17th-century tower with an izbica (a projecting upper gallery) and a pyramidal spire, and the whole church is surrounded by open sobotas (wooden arcades). The churchyard is bounded by a low wall with gates covered by shingled, bulbous caps.

In the 19th century the church was considerably altered. A grand quadrangular chapel from 1866, covered by a dome with a polygonal lantern, was added to the nave at that time. Older is the side porch on the south side of the nave, from the 18th century.

Interior and polychrome decoration

Around 1500 the interior was decorated with patron polychrome decoration, later repainted four times. The present paintings on the vault and walls date from 1935, while the original 16th-century decorations survive in fragments, mainly on the ceiling of the vestibule under the tower. They repeatedly show a hunting procession, a stag and a pair of doves. From the time of construction come the Gothic pointed portals with a rope ornament.

There are five altars in the church. In the late Baroque high altar are paintings from a Gothic triptych of the 16th century: in the centre the Holy Family, at the sides saints, and in the crowning the Annunciation. Two Rococo altars in the chapel originally stood in the church in Maciejowce in Slovakia. An 18th-century pulpit and a stone font from 1731 have also survived.

Nearby

It is about 3 km from here to the wooden church in Dębno, and on the way lies the manor house in Łopuszna. A little further stands the masonry church in Frydman, one of the oldest in the Podtatrze region.

Practical information

• Address: Harklowa 84, 34-434 Harklowa, Nowy Targ municipality.
• The church is in use, so the interior is visited outside services. None of the sources checked gives opening hours; ask the parish (website parafiaharklowa.com).
• The building is well suited to photography from the outside, together with the sobotas and the tower.