Szczecin, West Pomerania
Thursday, 05 November 2026 PL / EN
Churches and monasteries

Church of the Holy Cross in Oborzany

Oborzany 44, Oborzany
About Church of the Holy Cross in Oborzany

Early 14th-century hall church of granite ashlar in Oborzany, with an 18th-century half-timbered tower and the history of a lost triptych by Lucas Cranach the Younger.

The Church of the Holy Cross in Oborzany, in Dębno municipality, was built at the beginning of the 14th century. It is a hall church of granite ashlar, with a half-timbered tower added in the 18th century. The area of the former cemetery around the church, enclosed by a stone wall, has been preserved.

The building

The church has a rectangular plan and a gable roof. In the 18th century the windows were rebuilt, the original portals were walled up, and a half-timbered tower was built above the western part of the nave. In the 19th century a porch was added on the south side, which was demolished in the 1990s when a new sacristy was built in its place. In the west wall there is a brick Neo-Romanesque portal, built in place of a larger, pointed-arch stone portal. A second, pointed-arch and partly destroyed portal was walled up in the south wall. The east gable, of small stones, has no decoration. After the Second World War the church was consecrated as a Catholic church in 1966.

Interior and the lost triptych

A wooden gallery on posts runs along the west wall and the side walls. In the chancel hangs an 18th-century crucifix. The walls retain 16th-century polychromes, reconstructed in 1910 and now plastered over.

Before 1945 the church held a Renaissance altar triptych of 1562, with paintings by Lucas Cranach the Younger, made as a house altar for Catherine of Brunswick. It came to Oborzany from the Gothic church in Dębno, demolished in 1851, in exchange for bells. In 1998 the local historian Lech Łukasiuk found it in the church attic, in 2002 it was handed over for conservation, and since then its fate has remained unknown.

Practical information

  • Address: Oborzany 44, Dębno municipality. A branch church of the parish of Saints Peter and Paul in Dębno.
  • Nearby are the Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Dębno, about 2 km away, and Zielona Odra, about 3.7 km.
  • Service times and the possibility of going inside are given by the parish; check them before your visit.
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