Kościół Najświętszej Maryi Panny Wspomożycielki Wiernych, Wrocław

The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary Help of Christians is the parish church serving Księże Małe, set in park-like ground near water-bearing land. Its substantial form belongs to Neo-Romanesque architecture: a nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century revival of the sturdy, round-arched language of medieval churches. The building was designed by Hermann von Carlowitz, a city building councillor, and was funded by Countess Eleonore zu Stolberg-Stolberg and Count Leopold von Brühl.

The foundation stone was laid on the twentieth of June 1909, and the pace was remarkable: a bell was already hung in the tower that August. The church was consecrated on the second of January 1910. Notice the carved “ANNO 1909” above the portal leading into the tower, a compact signature of that rapid construction.

At the high altar is an eighteenth-century image of the church’s patroness, brought here from Jazłowiec near Buczacz, where it had once been carried in processions. The sanctuary decoration changed greatly in the nineteen-seventies, but the monumental mural of Mary in the presbytery was reconstructed during restoration in 2009. Inside, the main altar’s tabernacle has doors made from uncommon rosewood, while the font and pulpit continue the Neo-Romanesque character. The organ, built in 1979 by Theodor Böhme, retains its original pipes.