In September last year, we reported that the Sanctuary of the Assumed Mother of the Church had applied for a grant from the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. As it turned out at the time, apart from Wleń Castle, no other Lower Silesian monument received ministry funding. The lack of support from the ministry meant that the parish had to reduce the scope of the planned conservation work.
This year, the situation could have been similar. “When we read on the Ministry of Culture’s website that our application had failed for the second time, we began wondering whether to let the matter pass without comment or try to do something about it,” Dean Andrzej Jarosiewicz, custodian of the Sanctuary, tells IstotneInformacje.pl.
Dean Andrzej Jarosiewicz summarized the past seven years. “I included all the grants,” he says. “Together with Prelate Władysław Rączka, we took care of this church, saving monuments of religious and national culture. The Sanctuary allocated more than PLN 2 million for this purpose, 46% of which came from the residents of the Bolesławiec region.”
The Sanctuary’s custodian sent a protest to the ministry. “In our letter to the ministry, we asked whether there are many places like this in Poland where the community’s contribution to the renovation of a work of religious and national culture amounts to 46%,” says Dean Andrzej Jarosiewicz.
The argument proved effective. In March, the ministry announced that it would re-examine the Sanctuary’s application. At the beginning of April, the custodian received a message that the church would receive a PLN 250,000 grant. Financial support was also announced by the marshal’s office and Bolesławiec City Hall.
The estimated cost of the conservation work is PLN 460,000. “We planned to renovate St. Catherine’s Chapel and the Chapel of the Holy Cross,” the dean says. “Thanks to the ministry’s funding, we will be able to expand the scope of the work.”
Among other things, the exceptionally valuable frescoes by Jerzy Wilhelm Neunherz are to be restored. Work will begin at the end of April.
(GA information)