Dunajec 3 Regions
Lesnica - Łącko - Szczawnica

The remarkable journey of the high altar

To this day the church in Łącko preserves furnishings dating both from earlier times and from the 18th century, when the present building was erected. Among them the high altar holds a special place – it is the most important object in the interior and the oldest fully preserved sculpture monument in the parish.

The high altar consists of an older early Baroque central section from 1621 and side wings with sculptures added in the 18th century. The central part was created between 1619 and 1621 by the carver Baltazar Kuncz of Kleparz (Kraków) on commission from the Poor Clares of Stary Sącz.

Uniquely, the original contract between the convent and Kuncz has survived. It lists the scope of work and the agreed payment – 400 Polish zlotys plus food, which corresponds roughly to about 100,000 PLN in today’s value. The document, edited and published by Wiktor Bazielich, is one of the very few surviving craft contracts from that period.

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From Stary Sącz to Łącko

Kuncz’s altar was erected in 1621 as the main altar in the church of the Poor Clares in Stary Sącz, where it remained for 78 years. After the beatification of St Kinga in 1690 the nuns began to remodel the interior and commissioned the Italian artist Baltazar Fontana to create a new high altar.

Kuncz’s altar was dismantled in 1699 and its whereabouts over the next two decades remained unknown. Only after the brick church in Łącko was completed in 1720 did the Poor Clares donate the old altar to the new parish church. Since then it has stood in Łącko continuously, forming the liturgical centre of the parish and its most precious historic work of art.

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A symbol of spirituality and art

In the middle of the altar is a painting of Our Lady of the Scapular, originally painted in the type of the “Snow Madonna”, inspired by the famous image in the Roman basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The composition shows Mary holding the Child on her left arm, in an arrangement typical of Byzantine icons.

In the 19th century the painting was overpainted – a scapular and crowns were added to adapt the image to the then growing devotion to Our Lady of the Scapular. In this way the earlier royal and liturgical Marian type took on a new meaning, linked with Carmelite piety and the tradition of Mary’s protection over the faithful.

Today a copy of the painting, made in 1997, is displayed in the high altar, while the original has been moved to the Chapel of Our Lady of Częstochowa, where it is venerated by parishioners.

On either side of the central image, in semicircular niches, stand sculptures of St Francis and St Clare, founders of the Franciscan orders. In the upper part of the altar there is an 18th-century Baroque painting of St Michael the Archangel and figures of St Nicholas and St Stanislaus, bishop. St Michael the Archangel was proclaimed the second patron of the parish at the consecration of the new church in 1720. For the next 170 years his patronage was largely forgotten until 1892, when parish priest Fr Tomasz Pociłowski rediscovered the record of the consecration and revived his cult.

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Richness of form and detail

The side wings of the altar are topped with four wooden statues of the apostles – St Peter, St Paul, St Andrew and St John the Evangelist (two on each side). Higher up, between them, stand figures of St Stanislaus and St Adalbert (St Wojciech).

The wings also contain two oil paintings: on the left, a depiction of St John the Baptist and the Christ Child; on the right, the scene of naming John the Baptist. The overall composition impresses with its unity and richness of detail – a work in which craftsmanship is closely bound to religious meaning.

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A heritage lasting four centuries

The high altar of the church in Łącko is not only a work of outstanding artistic value but also a testimony to the continuity of faith and tradition. It has survived fires, relocations and stylistic changes while retaining its original Baroque character.

Today it is one of the best preserved examples of early Baroque woodcarving in Małopolska and one of the few altars whose author and history are documented in written sources. For the people of Łącko it is more than a monument – it is the spiritual heart of the parish and a tangible sign of four centuries of local devotion.