The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a parish church in Milanów, a large village and the center of the gmina about 7 km north of Parczew. The modest single-nave church was designed by Henryk Marconi — one of the most famous architects of 19th-century Warsaw — and was built at the expense of the estate owner Wanda Uruska-Kaboga. Together with the rectory and the former hospital of the same founder, it forms a rare ensemble of late Classicism for a Polissian village.
Foundation of Wanda Uruska
Milanów was first mentioned in 1431 as the property of the nobleman Andrzej Kostra. Later the estate belonged to the Firleys, in the 18th century to the Potockis, and in the 19th century to the Czetwertyńskis, who built a residence here. Wanda Juliana Uruska-Kaboga (1788–1876) financed not only the church but also the rectory, the hospital — now a village clinic — and the hospital laundry, now a residential building. All these buildings were erected in a single late Classicist style according to Marconi’s design. Construction dates vary in sources: most often 1856–1872 are mentioned, while the register of monuments gives 1861–1871.
Closed and reopened
In 1876, the year of the founder’s death, the Tsarist authorities closed the church. It was reopened only after the 1905 edict on religious tolerance, when freer practice of faith was allowed in the Russian Empire; an independent parish at the church was established in 1928. It now belongs to the Parczew deanery of the Siedlce diocese and covers Milanów and several neighboring villages. Inside, on the left wall, there is a marble plaque with the epitaph of Wanda Uruska-Kaboga.
What else is in Milanów
Near the church stands a neoclassical palace built after 1840, with former estate buildings and a well-preserved 19th-century landscape park; the palace houses the Maria Konopnicka Lyceum. At the local cemetery are buried Polish soldiers of the Independent Operational Group “Polissia” under General Franciszek Kleeberg, who fought here against the Red Army on 29–30 September 1939. In 1906, a fire brigade was founded in the village, which included an orchestra, theater, and library — its first board included Prince Volodymyr Czetwertyński.
How to get there
Milanów lies on voivodeship road No. 813 about 7 km north of Parczew; the village has a stop on the Lublin – Łuków railway line, and buses also run. The church stands on Kostelna Street, near the palace park. Beyond the village, in the forest, is the “Black Forest” reserve and the “Black Forest” trail near Milanów. In Parczew, it is worth seeing the Basilica of St. John the Baptist, and 16 km east — the Zamoyski Palace in Jabłoń. This is Poland: Ukrainian citizens need a foreign passport.
