Ruins left after 1945

West Pomerania is one of the regions where, after the Second World War, many village churches ceased to serve a religious function. Some were damaged in the fighting, some burned down, and others were simply never put to use after the change of population. According to descriptions in Wikipedia and the heritage register, a dozen or so such ruins are now listed in the register. They can be viewed from the outside, but the descriptions of these places warn that the walls can be unstable, so it is best not to go beneath them or inside.

Trzęsacz: a wall above the sea

The best-known ruin in the region is the ruins of the church in Trzęsacz. Of St Nicholas' Church, according to Wikipedia, the south wall survives, 12 metres long and 6 metres high, standing at the edge of a cliff above the Baltic. The sea eroded the shore over the centuries, and successive parts of the church collapsed during the 20th century. The municipality of Rewal secured what remained after the collapse of 1994, and a museum devoted to this history operates nearby. The place is also linked with the legend of Zielenica, a sea goddess who according to the tale died of longing and was buried in the churchyard.

Kołbaskowo municipality: several ruins in one area

Near Szczecin, in the municipality of Kołbaskowo, stand several ruins of Gothic churches built of granite and brick. According to the heritage register, Karwowo is a church from the second half of the 13th century. A neo-Gothic tower was added to it in 1896, and in April 1945 the building was damaged in the fighting. Wikipedia states that earlier there had been a German observation post on the tower. The churchyard around the ruin has also been entered in the heritage register.

Smolęcin has perimeter walls with eight pointed-arch window openings and a portal in the south elevation. According to Wikipedia the church was built at the turn of the 13th and 14th centuries from granite erratic boulders, and the window and door reveals were faced with brick. It came through the war undamaged and fell into ruin in the 1950s because no one found a use for it.

In Moczyły the right-hand reveal of the pointed-arch portal survives with traces of polychrome, along with three semicircular windows in the east wall and three polychrome zacheuszki, small window openings, on that wall. Pargowo, in turn, is a ruin left by a fire in 1945. The church was built of granite ashlar, a brick sacristy from the 14th century adjoins it on the north, and the west portal is hidden by a tomb monument of the von Blumenthal family from the late 19th century, built of sandstone blocks. According to Wikipedia the church was first mentioned in 1336 and was probably built in the last quarter of the 13th century.

Ruins near Stargard, Pyrzyce and Barlinek

The ruin in Ziemomysł A is, according to Wikipedia, a building from about 1250, made of granite ashlar laid in 18 courses and destroyed in 1945. A carefully worked portal with three recessed orders survives in the west, and the late Gothic east gable is decorated with four pointed-arch blind windows. In Równo the walls stand to full wall height, without a ceiling or roof, on the site of a former cemetery where a few cast-iron crosses have survived. The heritage register dates the church to the 13th century, and its granite Romanesque font was moved to the church in Barlinek.

The church in Płońsko is younger: this late Gothic church of stone and brick was built at the end of the 15th century, and the tower was added at the beginning of the 16th century. The nave walls survive, together with a tower with a crenellated parapet and a tall spire, with a portal of five recessed orders at ground level. In Szadzko the church was founded around 1600 by Joachim and Kordula von Wedel, who are buried in the crypt. After the war the altar and pulpit were moved to the church in Odargowo, and the chalice and censer went to the National Museum in Szczecin.

Neo-Gothic, a rebuilt tower and a hill above the Rega

Not all the ruins are medieval. The ruins of the Evangelical church in Nętkowo are, according to the heritage register, the remains of a neo-Gothic stone church from 1897, entered in the register as a ruin in 2007. In Cieszyn, in the municipality of Biesiekierz, only the tower was rebuilt, and it houses the parish chapel. Wikipedia dates the church to the 14th century and the heritage register to the 16th century, and the ruins were handed over to the parish in 1973.

The last ruin lies in Trzebiatów, by the Rega. According to the Wikipedia article, Wyszkowo hill is the former site of a Premonstratensian nunnery founded in 1235, and the later pilgrimage church was called the Jerusalem Chapel. The article gives no footnotes for these findings. Today the ruins of the church on Wyszkowo are surrounded by old trees, and the slopes are covered with grassland with heat-loving plants.

How to view the ruins

The descriptions of all these places advise viewing the walls from the outside and checking on the spot whether the site is accessible. For the rules on visiting in the municipalities of Kołbaskowo, Dolice or Dobrzany, one can ask at the municipal office. Caution is advisable, because walls without a roof or ceiling crumble over time, and some of the ruins lie among undergrowth and old cemeteries.