The 1907 plan for rebuilding the church

On 20 September 1906 a fire destroyed the roof and part of the furnishings of St Martin's church. A few months later a rebuilding design was drawn up. Its drawings, annotated in Russian, survived for more than a hundred years in a private house in Kielce. On 23 May 2024 the Matynia family handed them over to the Municipality of Pacanów. The plan belongs to the municipality and is published here with its permission.

The sheets show plans, façades and sections of the church, the tower, the roof truss and a site plan. The author signed the design in Stopnica on 6 March 1907. The signature most probably reads Zasadzki – according to the parish chronicle the church was rebuilt "to the designs of Zasadzki from Stopnica" (see History of the church). In August 1907 the design was approved in Kielce by the office of the provincial architect.

The whole plan in one PDF file (20 pages, 6.6 MB)

Official notes on the plan (drawing 18)

Reading of the Russian text (spelling as in the document) and translation. The officials' signatures are illegible; the last digit of the year in the first note is partly worn – the reading "1907" follows from the order of the approvals.

Настоящій планъ по журнальному постановленію Кѣлецкаго Губернскаго Правленія, состоявшемуся 15 октября 1907 года, утвержденъ.
Совѣтникъ (подпись)
Ст. Дѣлопроизводитель (подпись)

Стопницкое Уѣздное Управленіе настоящій планъ свидѣтельствуетъ.
П. Стопница, 2 Мая 1907 г.
Начальникъ Уѣзда (подпись)
Дѣлопроизводитель (подпись)

Translation:

This plan was approved by a resolution of the Kielce Provincial Board, recorded in the journal of its meeting of 15 October 1907.
Councillor (signature)
Senior clerk (signature)

The Stopnica District Office certifies this plan.
Settlement of Stopnica, 2 May 1907.
Head of the district (signature)
Clerk (signature)

Together with the author's signature (Stopnica, 6 March 1907) and the note from Kielce (August 1907), these notes show the path of the design: from the district office in Stopnica to the provincial authorities in Kielce.

Drawings

The photographs of the sheets have been straightened: lens distortion and perspective were removed and the waves of the tracing cloth smoothed. Captions in quotation marks are readings of the inscriptions on the plan.

Title card of the plan with a handwritten Russian inscription — Title card: "Проектъ отстройки римско-католическаго приходскаго костела въ пос. Пацановъ" – design for rebuilding the Roman Catholic parish church in the settlement of Pacanów

Sheet with plans, roof plan, façades and a section of the church — Sheet with plans, façades and a section – overall view

Sheet with plans and façades, second photograph — Sheet with plans and façades – second photograph

Sheet with three façades and cross-sections — Sheet with façades and cross-sections

Sheet with sections of the tower, a site plan and a description

Front façade of the church with the tower — "Фронтовый (западный) фасадъ" – front (west) façade

Side façade of the church with the tower and the chapel dome — Side façade

Side façade of the church along the nave — Side façade

Section of the church with the roof truss — Section with the roof truss

Section of the church with the chapel dome — Section with the chapel dome

Cross-section looking towards the organ gallery — "Разрѣзъ по e-f" – section along line e–f, view of the organ gallery

Floor plan of the church — "Планъ" – floor plan

Plan of the church with the roof — Plan with the roof

Site plan of the church and its surroundings — Site plan

Reverse of a sheet with coloured elements of the longitudinal section and the tower — Reverse of a sheet (longitudinal section and sections of the tower): elements coloured on the back of the tracing cloth so that the colour shows on the drawing on the front – a period technique for colouring technical drawings

Reverse of a sheet with coloured elements of sections and plans — Reverse of a sheet (sections and plans), coloured from the back

Handwritten official notes in Russian on a sheet — Official notes: certification by the Stopnica District Office (2 May 1907) and approval by the Kielce Provincial Board (15 October 1907) – reading and translation above

Signature of the author with place and date — "Проектъ составилъ …" – the author's signature, Stopnica, 6 March 1907

Note of approval of the design with a red signature — Approval of the design: Kielce, August 1907, on behalf of the provincial architect

Article in "Z Życia Gminy"

Cover of the monthly "Z Życia Gminy", May 2024 — "Z Życia Gminy", year XXXI, no. 5 (363), May 2024 – cover with the title card of the plan

The municipal monthly "Z Życia Gminy" reported the gift in its May 2024 issue (editorial team, Cenny dokument podarowany gminie – "A valuable document donated to the municipality", no. 5 (363), pp. 5–6). In summary: on 23 May 2024 Aleksandra, Paweł and Mikołaj Matynia from Kielce gave the municipality the 1907 rebuilding plan of the parish church. It was found among other keepsakes collected by the family's grandfather in the attic of their house; Mr Matynia noticed the name Pacanów because years earlier he had worked on fitting out the rebuilt town hall. The plan, drawn on tracing cloth and annotated in Russian, documents the whole building from the foundations to the roof, including the roof truss and wooden fittings. The handover took place in the mayor's office. The article stresses that even Jarosław Banasik, who had searched many archives for sources on Pacanów, had never found such precise material. The plan is to be examined by conservators, read, translated into Polish and made available to the public. The full Polish text is on the Polish version of this page.

Sources and rights

Plan for rebuilding the parish church in Pacanów, 1907, manuscript on tracing cloth, annotated in Russian – property of the Municipality of Pacanów (gift of the Matynia family, 23 May 2024). Photographs of the plan, the article and the cover are published with the permission of the Municipality of Pacanów.
Photographs and processing: Stanisław Stańczyk.
Article and cover: "Z Życia Gminy", municipal monthly, ISSN 1427-3071, year XXXI, no. 5 (363), Pacanów, May 2024.