The best traffic-free bike rides around Orchowo

Nice, wooden church, very atmospheric.

The now-defunct manor house was likely built at the turn of the 20th century on the site of an older structure. It was here that the writer and music critic Jerzy Waldorff-Preyss spent his childhood and youth. His father, Witold Preyss, bought the small farm immediately after the end of World War I, and after his death, the family moved from Rękawczyn to Warsaw, while the estate was leased. The area surrounding the manor house is home to numerous archaeological sites, explored in 2018 and 2019. The last pre-war tenant, Jan Piechowiak, and his son were executed by the Germans on September 15, 1939. The manor house was surrounded by a park, from which a beautiful linden avenue leading to the manor courtyard still survives. At the rear of the manor house stood a barn. To the right stood a long building housing a sheepfold, stables, and stables. Parallel to the manor house stood a pigsty, chicken coops, and a granary. Opposite the barns and stables was an orchard and vegetable garden. Between the stable and the granary was a coach house, containing an open yoke, a one-horse carriage, and an old 19th-century carriage. In 1937, the granary and pig house, along with all the livestock, burned down. (FB Manors and Palaces of Greater Poland)

🪵 History and Foundation - The church was built between 1789 and 1792, funded by Petronela Mlicka, née Gałczyńska, with the support of Father Ignacy Gułkowski. - During World War II, it was converted into a warehouse for water equipment and then renovated in 1968. - A thorough restoration was carried out between 1997 and 2002, during which the polychrome by Professor Wiktor Gosieniecki from the 1920s was removed. 🏛️ Architecture - The church is built using a log construction, clapboarded, with a slight southward orientation. - It has a hall-like layout, with a three-sided enclosed chancel. - There are annexes on either side of the nave: the Chapel of St. Joseph to the south and the sacristy to the north. - A square tower of post-and-beam construction rises from the front, with a ground-floor porch, topped by a bulbous dome with a lantern. - The roofs are shingled, emphasizing the building's traditional character. 🎨 Interior and Furnishings - The interior is covered with a flat, faceted ceiling, with a choir loft supported by four columns. It houses a five-stop organ by Wilhelm Sauer from 1900. - A Rococo crucifix from the late 18th century is placed on the chancel beam. - The interior furnishings are Baroque, Rococo, and Classicist, and include: - The main altar and two side altars, - A fourth altar in the chapel with Baroque figures, - A pulpit, baptismal font, confessionals, - A folk crucifix by Józef Glanc in the sacristy. 🔔 Surroundings - Next to the church is a brick and wooden bell tower from the mid-19th century, with a shingled roof. - The entire complex is surrounded by a wooden fence, and nearby stands a rectory from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.

🪵 History and Foundation - The first chapel on this site was built in 1460, as part of the church hospital. It was dedicated to the Holy Spirit and the Holy Cross. - The current church was built in 1781 as a continuation of the sacred tradition of this place. - The name St. Thecla was likely given in honor of the wife of the church's founder. 🏛️ Architecture and Interior - The church is built using log construction, on a stone foundation typical of wooden rural churches. - It is a single-nave structure with a styleless, modest form, which adds to its authentic charm. - The interior is decorated in the late Baroque style, with three paintings in the main and side altars, dating from 1910. - A distinctive feature is the crucifix placed on the eastern wall of the chancel, covered by a gable roof.

Good quality gravel section.

Obelisk commemorating the German murder of Jews and prisoners of war in 1942.

Very nice view of Lake Kamienieckie.

Historic place.