Orthodox Church of St Nicholas in Szczecin

The Church of St Nicholas on Zygmunta Starego Street in Szczecin is an Orthodox parish church and the co-cathedral of the Diocese of Wrocław and Szczecin of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church. It was built in the Byzantine style on a Greek-cross plan, and consecrated in September 2011.

The new church

Construction began in 2004 on a plot at the junction of Teofila Starzyńskiego and Zygmunta Starego streets, on the edge of a park in the city centre. Before the war the site was occupied by the Urania public cinema. The new church has the same dedication as the previous one, and the consecration ceremonies, attended by hierarchs, representatives of the authorities and worshippers from Poland and abroad, took place on 16-17 September 2011.

Where the parish came from

The Orthodox parish of St Nicholas was established in Szczecin in 1946, according to the parish website, as the first in the western lands. Until 2011 the faithful prayed in the former hospital chapel of the Bethany complex, built in the 1860s at ks. Piotra Wawrzyniaka 7. The parish received it in 1962, and it was consecrated after renovation in 1965. The furnishings of that church, including the neo-Baroque royal doors in the main iconostasis and the icons, were brought by Orthodox settlers and repatriates from the eastern borderlands after the Second World War.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Zygmunta Starego 1 (the parish gives the address as 1A), Szczecin.
• This is a working place of worship, so a visit to the interior should be arranged with the parish; service times and contact details are given on cerkiew.szczecin.pl.
• Nearby are the National Museum in Szczecin, the Chrobry Embankment and the Church of St Peter and St Paul.