Church of the Sepulcher of Saint Mary
The temple is located in the village of Brody, on the slope of the so-called Mount of Olives. It was built of stone blocks in the first half of the 17th century according to the design of architect Paulus Baudaert. The building is an example of the Mannerist style that is characterized by rich decorations and panache. In front of the front wall, there is a terrace. It is surrounded by a fence with stone figures of the apostles made by Tomasz Gałuszczyński in 1823. The church nave, i.e., the part intended for the faithful, twenty-three meters long and eighteen meters wide, is built on a rectangular plan. At the church’s entrance, there is a smaller vestibule, i.e., a half-ellipse-shaped church porch. At the opposite wall, at the liturgical east end, we have a semicircular apse.
The nave is covered with a gable roof topped with a ridge turret which is twenty-one meters high. It is made of ceramic roof tiles. The church porch has a tin dome topped with a roof lantern, i.e., a turret-like skylight illuminating the interior. The apse on the other hand is covered with hemispherical tin dome.
The front wall has a large semi-circular window. The wall has a triangular finial. Its top is decorated with a figure of the Virgin Mary and Child. The side walls in the lower half are reinforced by massive buttresses, or structures that stick out from and support the walls. They are covered with a separate small tin roof, with two round windows above it. The temple houses the so-called Tomb of the Virgin Mary, the main altar, two side altars, a gallery, and multiple decorations and paintings.
In front of the entrance, near the eastern wall, there is a rectangular platform with a sarcophagus, where we can see a figure of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. The sarcophagus is enclosed. In front of it, there is a wall separating it from the nave, with entrance openings on the right and left sides. Over the sarcophagus, we can find a flat roof at a height of five and a half meters.
The roof is topped with a richly decorated altar and a reredos. It comes from the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. It was created by Jan Nepomucen Tuliński, a Bernardine. The main element of the reredos is the figure of Virgin Mary in a white gown and blue robe, surrounded by golden rays. Around the figure, we can see gold-plated and silver-plated decorations on a blue background: figures of saints and angels, columns, as well as clouds and winding branches with leaves and flowers. Above the statue of Virgin Mary, there are figures of God the Father and Christ seated on thrones, as well as the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. They are surrounded by golden rays.
The gallery is at the level of the main altar. It runs along the three remaining walls. It has a fully built-in board balustrade. It is covered with mural paintings. The vault is also decorated with painted scenes showing the life of Virgin Mary. Some of them were done by Dydak Baturyna in the 19th century. The younger part comes from 1923-1924 and was created by Karol Polityński.
