St Peter's Church in Międzyzdroje

St Peter the Apostle's Church in Międzyzdroje is a brick church in the neo-Gothic style, completed in 1862. It stands on the northern slope of the Piast Hills on Lipowa Street. It was designed jointly by the architect Friedrich August Stüler and the King of Prussia Frederick William IV, who also paid two thirds of the cost of construction. The building is entered in the heritage register.

Construction and history after 1945

Construction ran from 1859 or 1860 to 1862. The church was originally Protestant. Catholics consecrated it on 28 June 1946. In 1980 an extension with catechetical rooms and a chapel was approved, the chapel being consecrated in 1984. In the 1980s and 1990s the church was enlarged to a design by Adam Szymski, who combined modern and neo-Gothic forms.

The structure

The church stands on a quadrilateral plan with a chancel with a three-sided end, lower and narrower than the nave. In the north-western corner rises a three-storey, octagonal tower with a pyramidal cap and three bells of 1920. The east gable is decorated with pinnacles, and in the west one is a round rose window with stained glass. Every day at noon the Międzyzdroje Bugle Call (Hejnał Międzyzdrojów) sounds from the tower.

Interior

The interior is a hall with an open, beamed ceiling. Of the original, Protestant furnishings two oil paintings from the mid-19th century survived: Christ Walking on the Sea with St Peter and Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, as well as a wooden crucifix. The organ dates from 1862. The rest of the decoration is new: the stained glass in the chancel was designed by Józef Kołodziejczyk and Ernest Pudełko, the same artists who made the mosaic showing the handing of authority to St Peter. The marble altar was made by a stonemason from Gorzów Wielkopolski. Since 2000 a reliquary with the remains of several saints and blessed has stood to the right of the altar. In the churchyard there are wooden Stations of the Cross and a small chapel with a figure of Mary with the Child.

Nearby

Right next to it is the Natural History Museum of Wolin National Park, and about half a kilometre further on the Walk of Fame (Promenada Gwiazd).

Practical information

• Address: Międzyzdroje, Lipowa 8.
• The church is in use; check the times of services and the possibility of visiting the interior with the parish.
• Heritage register entry: number A-325 of 2007.