Church of Our Lady Queen of the Holy Rosary in Piaseczno

The church in Piaseczno in Banie municipality dates from the 13th century. Its origin is linked with the Templars, whom Duke Barnim I settled in the Banie land in 1234. Today it is a filial church of the parish of Our Lady Help of Christians in Banie.

Romanesque stone and a wooden tower

The church was built of regularly hewn stone blocks on a rectangular plan measuring 19.9 by 8.2 metres. Its archaic form is shown by the semicircular apse, narrower than the nave, and by the round-headed windows and portals. In the west elevation there is a pointed-arch portal with three stepped reveals. In the 18th century a wooden, board-clad bell tower was added over the west part of the nave, with a bell from 1620 hanging in it. In 1851 the sacristy by the apse was demolished.

Interior and cemetery

The flat wooden ceiling is covered with paintings of plant ornament and biblical scenes. An organ gallery and Neo-Gothic stained glass have also survived. From the 16th century the church was Lutheran, and after the war, in 1946, it was reconsecrated as Catholic. The church adjoins the former cemetery, surrounded by a stone wall with buttresses, with a Neo-Romanesque brick gate and a memorial to those who fell in the First World War, converted into the plinth of a Marian figure.

The mother parish is based in the church in Banie, and the history of the Templar order is told by the Templar and Hospitaller castle in the area.

Practical information

• Location: Piaseczno, Banie municipality, Gryfino County.
• The church is active as a filial or parish church, and service times and the possibility of entering the interior are given by the parish.