St Stanislaus Kostka's Church in Chwarszczany

The filial Church of St Stanislaus Kostka in Chwarszczany was originally a Templar chapel dedicated to St John the Evangelist. Its Wikipedia entry calls it one of the most valuable monuments of West Pomerania. The building belongs to the parish of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Sarbinowo, and the heritage register dates it to the second half of the 13th century.

Two chapels

The first chapel probably stood in the middle of the 13th century on the north-western side of the complex and was pulled down around 1280. The present chapel was built before 1280 on the site of the earlier one, in the reductive Gothic style, by a Cistercian building workshop working at the monastery in Chorin. Art historians link its symbolism to the architecture of Jerusalem and the biblical description of Solomon's Temple.

A building with two towers

The hall-type building is 25.2 m long, 9.5 m wide and 13.6 m high, with buttresses and a polygonal east end. The lower part of the walls is made of carefully dressed granite blocks laid in regular courses, and the upper part is brick in Wendish bond. A rarely seen feature is the pair of cylindrical towers set into the western corners and topped with domes. Inside the south tower there is a spiral staircase, and a Hospitaller cross is carved on the back of one of the steps.

Interior and paintings

The interior is uniform and tall, with a cross-ribbed vault and almost no architectural decoration. A niche for the sedilia and the sacrarium have survived, as has a 19th-century music gallery. The most valuable features are the wall paintings from around 1400, attributed to a Hospitaller foundation: a frieze 2.75 m high showing the apostles, St Christopher and the holy virgins. After 1945 the inhabitants painted them over as "Teutonic", and an attempt at restoration in 1996 was halted for lack of funds. The church displays a fragment of the gravestone of Hans von Rotkirch, commander of the Chwarszczany and Dębno domain, who died in 1617.

Practical information

• Address: Chwarszczany 3, Boleszkowice municipality, Myślibórz County.
• The building is listed in the heritage register and is managed by the Salesians.
• Nearby are Zielona Odra and, in Oborzany, the Church of the Holy Cross.
• Check opening hours and whether you can enter the interior with the parish before your visit.