Gertraudenkapelle (Koszalin)
The Gertraudenkapelle ( Polish Kaplica św. Gertrudy ) in Koszalin ( German Köslin ) is a Gothic building from the 14th century. The octagonal brick building one of four buildings of a similar type in Pomerania - before 1945 often called the “Pearl of Pomerania”.
Geographical location
The Gertraudenkapelle stands on the southern edge of today's old town Koszalin, ulica Modrzejewskiej (before 1945: Bublitzer Straße ) No. 10. In the immediate vicinity is the newly built community center of the evangelical parish (ul. Połczyńska - Wilhelmstraße - No. 1) and the Bałtycki Teatr Dramatyczny in Juliusza Słowackiego (ul.Skłodowskiej-Curie - Hussar Street ). The former burial place around the chapel has now given way to a considerable embellishment measure with a fountain .
history
The Gertraudenkapelle was first mentioned in documents in 1489. Originally the Gertraudenkapelle was in front of the city. In 1534, with the introduction of the Reformation in Pomerania, the church became Lutheran. It was often misused, for example in 1735 when it was turned into an ammunition depot because of its remote location from the city. For this purpose it was restored, and an older building badge was found on which a renovation in 1662 was indicated. In the 19th and 20th centuries the Gertraudenkapelle belonged to the Marienkirche congregation, and from the beginning of the 20th century it was used by the Old Lutherans for worship purposes.
As a result of the Second World War , Protestant church life in Koszalin almost came to a standstill. In any case, the Gertraudenkapelle was again used by others, for example as a space for theater sets , as an experimental theater and as an antiquarian bookshop. But the building was on 24 August 1956 monument asked. In 1999 the chapel was finally returned to the Evangelical Church - in this case the Evangelical Augsburg Church in Poland . On May 7, 2000, their bishop Jan Szarek inaugurated it again as a church.
In the same year, a bell donated by the home district of Köslin and the Convent of Evangelical Congregations in Pomerania was installed . It was the first to have rung from the turret of the Gertraudenkapelle and now makes the Evangelical Church "audible" in the Catholic bishopric of Koszalin. Various interior repairs were carried out such as the installation of a heater and an electrical bell system. In 2011, a Luther rose as a glass window - also donated - was installed above the entrance portal .
Until a new community center was built in 2008, the Gertraudenkapelle was used as a place of worship, today only sporadically and on special occasions.
building
At the end of the 14th century, the St. Gertrud Hospitals came into being in Pomerania, of which around 35 are known. One of the first was the one in Köslin, which was inaugurated in 1383 after two years of construction. Gertrud von Nivelles in Brabant was considered the benefactress of the poor and sick, and also the patroness of travelers (the road from Altdamm (now in Polish: Dąbie) near Stettin to Köslin was also a pilgrimage route to the pilgrimage sites on Gollen (Góra Chełmska) and Wusseken (Osieki )). These people were taken care of here (like the St. Georgs / St. Jürgen hospitals elsewhere). This care also included the creation of a cemetery around the building.
The octagonal brick construction, characteristic of the Gertrauden Chapel in Koszalin, has parallels in three other Pomeranian places of worship: George's Chapel in Słupsk ( Stolp ) , St. Gertrud's Church in Darłowo ( Rügenwalde ) (both in Western Pomerania) and Gertruden's Chapel in Wolgast (Western Pomerania). The last two buildings are constructed in a twelve-sided shape.
local community
The Gertraudenkapelle only got a parish from 1999. In the 19th century it was owned by the Marienkirche parish in Köslin, which at the beginning of the 20th century gave it to the Old Lutheran congregation for worship. After 1945 only a few Protestant church members lived in Koszalin. In the late 1960s, the establishment of a "non-Polish" (i.e. German) parish in the city was approved. They met in what was then the Christ Church (built in 1931, demolished in 2005 due to road construction work), which had passed from the Methodists to the Pentecostals . In 1983 a Polish Protestant congregation was also founded, which met in the Baptist Church. Both parishes were looked after by the pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Słupsk (Stolp) . In 1997 the municipalities were no longer divided up according to language, but according to regions. A new parish was founded in Koszalin, which was occupied by the young pastor Janusz Staszczak. The services are held in Polish, and once a month in German.
Since then, Koszalin has been its own parish with the Gertraudenkapelle as a "parish church", supplemented by the parish center since 2008. It is part of the diocese of Pomerania-Greater Poland (seat: Sopot (Sopot) ) of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland (seat: Warsaw ). In the meantime, there are still four branch communities belonging to the Koszalin parish:
- Białogard (Belgard) when the Catholic Church of St. George is used for worship
- Świdwin (Schivelbein) with the cemetery chapel as a place of worship
- Szczecinek (Neustettin) with its own chapel
- Wołcza Wielka (Groß Volz) with its own church, which is shared by the Catholics.
The parish maintains a diaconal ward with its own building in Mireckiego Street in Koszalin.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information board at the Gertraudenkapelle
- ^ Fritz R. Barran: City Atlas Pomerania. 2nd Edition. Leer 1993, p. 65.
- ↑ Karla König : Pomerania. Stettin 1930, p. 47.
- ^ Hellmuth Heyden : Church history of Pomerania (2 volumes). Cologne-Braunsfeld 1957, p. 173f.
- ^ Rita Scheller: Pomeranian Gertraudenkapellen. In: Pommersche Heimatkirche - Supplement for Die Pommersche Zeitung V / 2013, Volume 63, p. 15
- ↑ Convent of Protestant Congregations in Pomerania: The Kösliner Congregation ( page can no longer be accessed , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Parafia Koszalin in Diecezja Pomorsko-Wielkopolska
Coordinates: 54 ° 11 ′ 11 ″ N , 16 ° 11 ′ 4 ″ E