| Wieniawa | |
|---|---|
| Village | |
  Wieniawa | |
| Coordinates: 51°22′N20°48′E / 51.367°N 20.800°E | |
| Country |  |
| Voivodeship | Masovian |
| County | Przysucha |
| Gmina | Wieniawa |
Wieniawa [vjɛˈɲava] is a village in Przysucha County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland (historic Lesser Poland). It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Wieniawa. [1] It lies approximately 13 kilometres (8 mi) east of Przysucha and 96 km (60 mi) south of Warsaw.
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town, with a population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Though villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighborhoods. Villages are normally permanent, with fixed dwellings; however, transient villages can occur. Further, the dwellings of a village are fairly close to one another, not scattered broadly over the landscape, as a dispersed settlement.
Przysucha County is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is Przysucha, which lies 98 kilometres (61 mi) south of Warsaw.
Mazovian Voivodeship or Mazovia Province is the largest and most populous of the 16 Polish provinces, or voivodeships, created in 1999. It occupies 35,579 square kilometres (13,737 sq mi) of east-central Poland, and has 5,324,500 inhabitants. Its principal cities are Warsaw in the centre of the Warsaw metropolitan area, Radom (226,000) in the south, Płock (127,000) in the west, Siedlce (77,000) in the east, and Ostrołęka (55,000) in the north. The capital of the voivodeship is the national capital, Warsaw.
The history of the village dates back to the late Middle Ages, and its original name was Klodno. The Roman Catholic parish at Klodno was founded in 1365, but the history of the first church here dates back to 1264. In the second half of the 15th century, the village was purchased by the Wieniawita noble family, which changed its name to Wieniawa.
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: classical antiquity, the medieval period, and the modern period. The medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class in the Kingdom of Poland, and in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. After the Union of Lublin in 1569, the Grand Duchy and its neighbouring Kingdom became a single state, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.
The village is famous for its parish church, which was founded in the year 1511 by father Stanislaw Mlodecki, in the location of the 13th-century wooden church. The oldest part of the church is a late Gothic presbytery, together with St. Stanislaus chapel. The nave with two side altars were built in 1703, and the whole complex was renovated in 1909–12.
The nave is the central part of a church, stretching from the main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type building, the strict definition of the term "nave" is restricted to the central aisle. In a broader, more colloquial sense, the nave includes all areas available for the lay worshippers, including the side-aisles and transepts. Either way, the nave is distinct from the area reserved for the choir and clergy.
An altar is a structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches and other places of worship. They are used particularly in Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism used such a structure until the destruction of the Second Temple. Many historical faiths also made use of them, including Roman, Greek and Norse religion.
The most interesting element in the church is its main altar, known as the Wieniawa Polyptych, which comes from the year 1544, and is in Renaissance style. The names of creators of the main altar are not known, and the Wieniawa Polyptych is regarded as one of the finest examples of Renaissance art in the Radom Land. It consists of three parts, illustrating the life and death of Saint Stanislaus of Szczepanow, Bishop and Martyr.
A polyptych is a painting which is divided into sections, or panels. Specifically, a "diptych" is a two-part work of art; a "triptych" is a three-part work; a tetraptych or quadriptych has four parts; pentaptych five; hexaptych six; heptaptych seven; and octaptych eight parts.
The Renaissance is a period in European history, covering the span between the 14th and 17th centuries and marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity. The traditional view focuses more on the early modern aspects of the Renaissance and argues that it was a break from the past, but many historians today focus more on its medieval aspects and argue that it was an extension of the middle ages.
