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Stare Koźle is the oldest locality located within the municipality of Bierawa. The first historical mention of the village dates from 1223. It was included in a document by the Wroclaw bishop Lawrence regarding the transfer of 40 pots of honey to the church of St. Nicholas in Cieszyn. Stare Koźle (Vetero Coslae, Alt Cosel) was probably the forerunner of the city of Koźle.
In 1335, historical sources mention the existence of a filial wooden church in the village under the invocation of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The historic temple in Stare Koźle described here was built in 1806-1808 on the site of an earlier church. The patron saint of the temple is St. John Nepomucene, associated with protection against floods, which has symbolic significance in a region located on the Oder.
The church is a brick, oriented building with a tower with a banial helm. It combines simplicity of form with Neo-Baroque details. The church was damaged many times, including during the Oder flood and during the Third Silesian Uprising in 1921. According to tradition, a trace of these events is a mark on the tower wall left by a mortar shell. In 1997, it was damaged by the so-called millennium flood.
The temple contains Baroque elements of furnishings, and beneath the tower cross archival documents were discovered. The structure is an important spiritual and cultural point of Stare Koźle.
