EN
Research conducted in the church in Krzyworzeka was carried out by a team from the Institute of Archaeology at Lódz University and the Regional Centre for the Study and Documentation of Historical Monuments in Lódz. The purposes of the investigations were both cognitive and conservation-related. The outcome provided fundamental data concerning the monument in question. The original church was erected on a rather simple plan, with a nave on an orthogonal projection, 9,94x11,69 m, and a narrower, presbytery with the shape of a reverse rectangle, 5,86 x 6,70 m. To the north, the presbytery was adjoined by a sacristy with a length corresponding to the presbytery and a ground floor 2,86x5,54 m large. The thickness of the nave walls totals about 1,55 m, and that of the presbytery and sacristy – 1,30 m. The nave and the presbytery were covered with a wooden ceiling, and the sacristy - with a barrel roof. A freestanding brick bell tower, 5,93x6,15 m. was erected to the south of the church. The stones used for building the walls are easily available and different sized erratic boulders collected while clearing the fields after the locatio, as well as sandstone broken in the deposit, accessible in the nearby outcrops in the river valley of the Krzywa. Smaller stones stabilising the layers of the wall were placed between the larger erratic boulders. The tendency towards preserving the wall faces is conspicuous in the church and the bell tower. The stones were segregated by arranging them with the flat parts towards the face, while the visible parts feature traces of hewing the faces.The bell tower displays nests left begin by the scaffolding, spaced every 1,3 -1,4 m, horizontally and about 1,1-1,2 m. vertically. The archaeological dig registers traces of vertical wooden posts, probably the remnants of the scaffolding, standing 0,3 m from the face wall and 2,3 m from each other. There is no doubt about the connection of the examined monument and the reign of Duke Boleslaw the Pious, the ruler of the land of Ruda, while the direct overseer and constructor supervising the construction was scultetus Theodoric, who located the village. The origin of the church should, therefore, be situated within a current of colonization based on German law (second half of the thirteenth century), totally unexamined as regards its socio-ethnic aspects and insufficiently studied historically. Presumably the architectural spatial model of the church in Krzyworzeka was imported from the birthplace of Theodoric and the colonists brought over by him. There are no data relating to Theodoric's descent, but we are entitled to assume that he could have come to the ducal court and then the land of Ruda from Silesia. The time of the erection of the church and the bell tower can be described approximately, since the locatio act issued in 1264 mentions 15 years exempt of all obligations and services. Such a time span would have made it possible to gather a suitable amount of building material and to erect a church together with a freestanding bell tower. One may accept that the construction was completed about 1280.