St. Nicolas church in Gąsawa: main altar
Gąsawa [gɔ̃ˈsava] (German: Gonsawa is a village in Żnin County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Gąsawa. It lies approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) south of Żnin and 43 km (27 mi) south-west of Bydgoszcz. The village has a population of 1,400.
Gąsawa received the city rights in 1388 and lost them in 1934.
It is famous as the place of the assassination of the Leszek I the White, prince of Poland (November 23, 1227). In 1600 Gąsawa hosted the Lubrański Academy (Polish: Kolegium Lubrańskiego) which temporarily moved out of plague-stricken Poznań.
The main tourist attraction in Gąsawa is the 17th century wooden St. Nicolas Church with a unique collection of multi-layered mural paintings, the earliest from the 17th century, and the most recent from 1807 [1].
The church itself, a larch construction with a slate roof, was in a such a bad state around 1850 that local officials asked the regional Prussian government to allow the church to be dismantled and build a new one instead. The response gave permission to only overhaul the building. Existing wall paintings were covered with a layer of reed and ordinary plaster, and forgotten for some 150 years[2] [3].
The town name was spelled "Gonzawa" in some old documents.
References
- ^ [1]Iconographic Baroque mural paintings in a wooden church accessed 3 July 2007
- ^ [2] Saint Nicolas' Church in Gasawa. accessed 7 July 2007
- ^ [3] Monuments of Sacred Architecture, Żnin county official website accessed 7 July 2007
Coordinates: 52°46′N 17°45′E / 52.767, 17.75
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