Church of the Holy Cross in Szczecin

The Church of the Holy Cross in Szczecin's Pogodno district consists of two connected churches: an old small church from 1930 and a new one, built in 1972-1978 in the modernist style. According to the Wikipedia entry it was the first church built in Szczecin after the Second World War.

How the new church came about

On the site of the present church stood a Protestant chapel from 1834, holding no more than 500 people. After the war it was blessed as a Catholic one in 1946. The growing number of residents required a larger church, but the authorities agreed to its construction only in 1971, when the parish worded the application as an extension rather than a new building. The architect Zbigniew Abrahamowicz presented two concepts: one on a rectangular plan and one with a central, theatre-like layout. The second was chosen. The church was blessed on 8 December 1978.

Architecture

The new church is a hall without a separate chancel. The upper church proper has an amphitheatre layout: the chancel lies in the lowest part, and the pews fan out towards the highest levels. Beneath it is the lower church, the only such solution in the diocese, and the lower level houses catechetical rooms, offices and storerooms. In the large space there are no pillars or supports, because a suspended ceiling was used, supported on the perimeter of the walls. The building is crowned by a modern tower, and the roof is covered with copper sheet. The old small church, merged into the new building, serves as an additional chapel.

Furnishings

In the old part there survive ornamental polychromes on the ceiling of the vestibule, the organ case, a marble font and two elements of a stained-glass window with a panorama of Szczecin with the castle and the archcathedral basilica. The Passion of Christ cast in bronze was designed and made by Bolesław Chromy, and the Stations of the Cross in sgraffito technique were made in 1985 by Kazimierz Bieńkowski. The pews and chandeliers were designed by Zbigniew Abrahamowicz.

Practical information

• The church lies on Wieniawskiego Street in Pogodno, in the Szczecin-Pogodno deanery.
• Mass times and the possibility of visiting are given by the parish.

About two kilometres from here stands the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic.