Church of the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist and the Holy Sepulchre Guardians Parish Museum Chełm
Chełm 1, 32-744 Łapczyca
Tourist region: Kraków i okolice
tel. +48 794558010
The church was first mentioned in 1198, when Comes Mikora donated the village with the church to the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. It stood until 1412, and on its site the parish priest Mikołaj of Radomsko built a new wooden one on a stone foundation. Between 1738 and 1749, Master Jan Czepigowski of Kraków built the present temple, consecrated by the Order's General Bishop Tomasz Nowiński in 1825. The Knights of the Holy Sepulchre worked in Chełm until the Order was dissolved in 1819. The church was renovated in 1901, 1927 and 1971. Next to it stands a two-storey, brick, quadrilateral belfry, covered by a tented roof, dating from the 18th century. There was a cemetery in the church square for centuries.
It is a small late Baroque hall church built of sandstone on a rectangular plan, with a high nave with a flat ceiling and a presbytery with rounded corners and a gabled roof covered with copper sheeting. On the façade you can see a cartouche with the cross of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre from 1749.
The Baroque decoration is from the 18th century. In the chapel, a late 18th-century Baroque polychrome depicting the granting of privileges to the monastery can be seen on the barrel vault with lunettes. The main altar from 1749, made by Piotr Kornecki, features an 18th-century image of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception. The historic furnishings include side altars, brass epitaphs from the 17th and 18th centuries, an Ecce Homo statue from the turn of the 17th and the 18th centuries, a baptismal font from the 17th century, and the Stations of the Cross from 1875.
In 1971, the remains (relics) of the original members of the Order were discovered in the sacristy by the parish priest, Father Antoni Tworek. In 1999, the 900th anniversary of the founding of the Order and the 650th anniversary of its activities in Chełm were celebrated, and a museum was opened, whose custodian for many years was the founder Father Antoni Tworek. The museum occupies two rooms in the parish building and the bell tower. Among the exhibits are stalls from the 17th century; a wooden statue of Saint John of Nepomuk from 1751; a monstrance and can from the 17th and 18th centuries; chasubles and liturgical vestments from the 18th century; chronicles, books, and parish inventories from the 15th century onwards; plans, maps, missals and an exhibition dedicated to Pope John Paul II. The museum is a branch of the Diocesan Museum in Tarnów.