History of the structure

The parish in Wąsosze was erected in the first half of the 14th century. The parish church of All Saints was mentioned in the 15th century as having existed for a long time. The new church was built in the 16th century. It was consecrated in 1602. As a result of a fire in 1849 it was almost completely burned down except for the chancel, to which a nave was added in 1863, enlarged by one more bay in 1865-1868. In the years 1867-1917, a tower was added to the main nave. Moreover, in 1873 a chapel of the Virgin Mary was added to the chancel from the north. The church was plastered on the outside in the 1950s and repainted on the inside in the 1970s. In 1980 Leon Zacharski from Bydgoszcz carried out the painting and gilding of the altars, the pulpit and the Stations of the Cross funded by Father Stanisław Kwieciński. In the years 1991-1993, thanks to the efforts of Father Wiktor Hołtyn, the painter Henryk Kot from Poznań and the Dobosiewicz company from Gniezno made a new polychrome of the church interior.

The rectory was built in the mid- 19th century, most likely in connection with the reconstruction of the parish church burned in 1849 on the site of the previous wooden rectory. In 1980, its elevation was repaired, and in 2005 the damaged window woodwork was replaced, preserving the size of the original openings and window divisions.

Description of the structure

The All Saints parish church complex in Wąsosze is located on the shore of Wąsowskie Lake by the local road connecting Konin and Ślesin. The parish church is situated between a Roman Catholic cemetery to the north and a rectory surrounded by a garden to the south. It is a brick, oriented building. The nave is built on a square floor plan, and from the east there is an equally long, narrower and lower chancel closed with an apse. From the west - a four-storey tower with a porch in the ground floor, topped with a cupola with a cross. A sacristy adjoins the chancel from the south, and a chapel opens to it from the north.

The chancel of the church is separated from the nave by a rood arch. In the northern part it opens with an apparent arch to the chapel, in the eastern part with a rood arch to an apse. In the western part of the nave, there is a wooden choir gallery supported by two pillars.

The church cemetery is separated by a brick and plastered fence with a decorative gate of an architectural form topped with three turrets.

An orchard and vicarage garden adjoin the church cemetery from the south. In its southern part, there is a brick, plastered, one-storey rectory with a usable attic, set on a rectangular floor plan on the east-west axis, with its shorter side running parallel to the road, covered with a gable roof. On the northern side, in the axis of the main elevation, there is a porch covered with a gable roof with a vestibule, on the west side and south-west there are extensions adjacent to the building. The building is partly cellared. Brick ceiling in the basement, wooden beam ceiling on the ground floor.

Visitor access. The church is open to visitors from the outside.

Author of the note: Tomasz Łuczak, 21.09.2017

Bibliography

• Wąsosze – kościół parafialny pw. Wszystkich Świętych, Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, compiled by Lidia Waśkowska, 1989, Archive of the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship Heritage Protection Officer in Poznań.
• Wąsosze – plebania, Record sheet of monuments of architecture and construction, compiled by. Barbara Zielińska, 2006, Archive of the Wielkopolskie Voivodeship Heritage Protection Officer in Poznań.
• Wielkopolska. Słownik krajoznawczy, ed. Łęcki Włodzimierz, Poznań 2002, p 321.
• Maluśkiewicz Piotr, Województwo konińskie. Szkic monograficzny, Warszawa-Poznań 1983, p. 321
• Maluśkiewicz Piotr, Ziemia konińska. Przewodnik turystyczny, Konin 2002, p. 165.