The church was erected in 1402, as a sacral building. In compliance with Mediaeval layout principles of theological and architectural nature, it was established on an east-west axis. The oldest part of the construction is its presbytery. In the 15th Century it was extended towards the east by building a three-sided apse (in church architecture it is a semicircular, trapezoid or polygonal termination to the presbytery, nave or side aisles of a church, either separated from the mass of the building or incorporated in it). From the west you can see a square tower measuring 7.5×7.5m in its base. Its uneven floors are separated with small offsets. At the lower level, made of stone, is an ogival arcade with the main entrance to the church. The top floor, on the other hand, which serves as a belfry, is made of wood and boarded with planks on the inside. It was given that shape as a result of adding another level on top of the brick part of the tower following the fire of 1653. An incomplete mechanism of a wooden clock has been found there.
The tower bells are also noteworthy. The oldest of these comes from 1654, i.e. the Baroque period. In consequence of a mismatched clapper its bottom edge and rim were cracked. As a result, the bell have remained silent for over quarter century. The other, smaller and younger one (1876), however, is still in operation.
Visitors should definitively see the high altar carved in wood in 1766. Its centre holds a painting portraying Our Lady of the Snows with Child. To the right from the nave there is a wooden side altar of the Holy Cross, dating back to 1753. Its founder was the then village leader of Ciechocin, Elżbieta Sztoltmannowa. The church is also furnished with a wooden altar of St. James the Greater and a pulpit, dating back to 1766.
Other notable elements include liturgical vessels, with an outstanding 17th-Century chalice, and a tower-shaped monstrance. Visitors can also notice some smith-craft monuments, including i.a. metal fittings on the door to the sacristy, with a monstrous tumbler lock.
Autor: CIT Chojnice
Foto: A. Słyszewska
