The Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa in Siedliszcze — the parish church of a small town in Chełm County, about 25 km northwest of Chełm. It was built in 1904 as an Orthodox church on the site of an old Uniate one, and since 1919 it has been a Catholic church. After several reconstructions, the church bears little resemblance to the original, but its history clearly shows how the Chełm region changed in the 20th century.
The Town of Wengliński
Siedliszcze was first mentioned in 1396. In the 15th century, it belonged to the Koribut family, received Magdeburg rights in 1548, and in 1760 the Chełm podstoli Wojciech Wengliński obtained a new city privilege from King Augustus III, granting four annual fairs. In 1764, the same Wengliński founded a Uniate parish here with the Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God and Saint Onuphrius. In the 1880s, the town had 899 inhabitants, including 650 Jews; local craftsmen made carriages and sleds. Siedliszcze lost its city rights in 1821 and regained them only on January 1, 2016.
From Church to Catholic Church
In 1875, after the liquidation of the Uniate Church, the parish became Orthodox, and in 1904 a new brick church was built on the site of the Uniate one. Meanwhile, Catholics prayed in a temporary wooden chapel; in 1907, Bishop Franciszek Jaczewski established a Roman Catholic parish here. In 1919, the Chełm Land Office handed over the former church along with the rectory to the parish, and the church was adapted for the Catholic rite.
In 1958, according to a project by Lublin engineer Czesław Hawdzik, the nave was extended, doubling the size of the church. In 1974, the church was consecrated by Bishop Edmund Ilcewicz, and between 1988 and 1999 it acquired its current appearance: a new tower on the facade, a copper roof, and two side entrances. The main altar features a triptych with images of Our Lady of Częstochowa, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, and Saint Brother Albert; the windows are filled with stained glass. Nearby stands a bell tower in the same style with three bells — “Stefan,” “Jan,” and “Wacław,” the largest weighing 523 kg.
What Else Is in Siedliszcze
On Shpitalna Street, a small open-air museum has been operating since 2003: a 19th-century wooden rectory, a barn with a thatched roof from the 1920s, a well with a crane, and a horse-driven mechanism for village machinery. In Siedliszcze-Kolonia, an 18th-century estate with a park has been preserved, and the town also has a Jewish cemetery.
How to Get There
Siedliszcze lies between Lublin and Chełm: about 50 km from Lublin and 25 km from Chełm, with buses running from both cities. The church stands in the center, on Kosteľna Street. A few kilometers to the south are the church in Pawłów, to whose parish Siedliszcze belonged until 1907, and the hillfort in Kana. More about the region can be found in the article “Polish Polissia: what to see beyond the Bug”. This is Poland: Ukrainian citizens need a passport.
