Church of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Szczecin

The Church of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary stands in Szczecin's Stołczyn, at the junction of Nehringa and Kościelna streets. It is a Gothic brick church with a transept on a granite foundation, regarded as one of the few churches in Szczecin with its Baroque furnishings preserved.

A village of Cistercian nuns and Carthusians

The first church in the village of Stołczyn was built in the 13th century. The village was initially an endowment of a Cistercian nunnery, then of the Carthusian order. In the 15th century the church was rebuilt in the Gothic style as a hall church with a tower on the west side. In the 1720s a transept was added, as shown by an inscription above the entrance dated 1725. The tower received two upper, wooden storeys and a Baroque helm with a small turret, and the whole building was plastered white.

A fire in 1920 destroyed the tower. It was rebuilt in a simplified form, with a copper helm and no turret. Today's appearance is the result of conservation work in the 1980s, during which the Gothic portal beneath the tower, the Gothic gables and the blind niches echoing those of the collegiate church in Stargard were uncovered.

Baroque furnishings

Inside is a richly decorated altar from 1727 with sculptures of angels, putti and figures of Moses and St John the Baptist. It contains five oil paintings, among them the “Last Supper”, the “Crucifixion” and the “Entombment”. The pulpit, with a bowl supported by a sculpture of an angel, apostles on the balustrade and paintings with symbolic content, dates from the 1720s. The altar, pulpit and galleries were conserved in 1980-1982. A Baroque Paschal candlestick and neo-Baroque polychromes in the splays of the chancel windows have also survived.

Surroundings

Next to the church lies a walled cemetery that has been out of use since the early 19th century. In the corner of the wall, at the junction, stand the remains of a monument to villagers who fell in the First World War. In front of the entrance stands a figure of Jesus commemorating the consecration of the Polish parish in 1946, on a plinth that is the gravestone of the Steinbrück family, who for 62 years provided pastoral care for the then Evangelical parish.

Practical information

• Location: Stołczyn district, at the junction of Nehringa and Kościelna streets.
• The church is active as a parish church, so the interior is easiest to see during services. The parish gives the hours; check them before your visit.
• Nearby stands the Bismarck Tower, about 1.9 km away in a straight line.