John the Baptist (Bezławki)

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John the Baptist (Bezławki)
(Kościół Jana Chrzciciela w Bezławkach)
Church of Bäslack
The church (former castle) in Bezławki

The church (former castle) in Bezławki
Construction year: before 1402 (castle),
1583 (church)
Location: 54 ° 0 '54.7 "  N , 21 ° 16' 0.5"  E Coordinates: 54 ° 0 '54.7 "  N , 21 ° 16' 0.5"  E
Location: Bezławki
Warmia-Masuria , Poland
Purpose: Roman Catholic (until 1945 Evangelical Lutheran ) branch church
Parish: Nr. 41,
11-440 Wilkowo
Diocese : Warmia

The Church of St. John the Baptist in Bezławki is a Wildhaus converted into a Protestant church, which was used as a defensive structure during the time of the Order . The former Bäslack Castle became the parish church for the East Prussian parish of Bäslack and now serves as a branch church of the Catholic Church in Bezławki, Poland .

Geographical location

Bezławki is located ten kilometers southwest of the city of Kętrzyn ( German  Rastenburg ) on the river Deine ( Polish Dajna ) in the northern center of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship . The location of the church is the castle hill in the southwest of the village.

The castle complex converted into a church with the church tower on the south side

Church building

A wooden church was mentioned in Bäslack as early as 1402. However, when Bäslack Castle, built as a Wildhaus at the end of the 14th century, was no longer needed, it was converted into a Protestant church in 1583. It consisted of a rectangular north-south building, which previously had two floors and into which a beamed ceiling was then drawn in at the height of the former defensive floor.

The north gable from the time of the order
The courtyard gate from the time of the order with the gable from 1583

The church had no tower for more than 140 years, as it was only built between 1726 and 1730 as a half-timbered tower on the south side. The orden temporal architecture has been preserved at the northern gable, remnants of Südgiebels are still present on the turret. On the top floor you can see a battlement.

The courtyard gate dates back to the time of the order, its gable-like construction probably from 1583. In front of the southern front there is a large boulder wall. It is considered to be the only surviving wall of the order's smallest defense system.

In 1884 the building was completely renovated. The interior of the church was completely changed and a barrel vault was used instead of the beamed ceiling . The vestibule on the courtyard side and the sacristy on the southwest side also date from this period . The church has a cellar. The cellar under the choir served as a crypt .

In 1988 the church was restored. It has served the Roman Catholic Church as a place of worship since the 1970s and is now dedicated to John the Baptist .

One of the old pre-Reformation furnishings was a statue of John from around 1440. Parts of a crucifixion group were added to the collections in Königsberg Castle . The bell and a plaque for those who died in the Napoleonic Wars are still there.

The organ was transferred to the Johanneskirche Kętrzyn in 2004 .

Parish

A church already existed in Bäslack in the pre-Reformation period. In 1402 a wooden church building was mentioned, and in 1480 the pastor Johannes Tolk , who looked after the Bäslacker parish with the places Wilkendorf ( Polish: Wilkowo ), Laxdoyen (Łazdoje) , Wangotten (Wanguty) , Pastern (Pasterzewo) and Adlig Stumplack (Stąpławki) .

Evangelical

history

With the introduction of the Reformation in 1525, the church in Bäslack became Protestant. From 1583, the castle, which had been converted into a place of worship, was available to her. In 1867 the parish of Bäslack had 2,945 parishioners, in 1925 there were still around 2,000. In view of the large number of Polish church members, preaching in the Polish language continued into the 19th century. Until 1945 the parish of Bäslack belonged to the church district Rastenburg (Polish: Kętrzyn ) in the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union . Flight and expulsion of the local population weakened the life of the evangelical community of the village called "Bezławki" after 1945. Today the Protestant residents living here belong to the Johanneskirche Kętrzyn in the diocese of Masuria of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland .

Parish places

Until 1945 the parish of Bäslack belonged to numerous villages, towns and places of residence:

German name Polish name German name Polish name
* Bäslack Bezławki * Pötschendorf Pieckowo
Bäslackshof Bezławecki Dwór Pötschenwalde Wólka Pieckowska
Bear corner Barwik Pose cheeks Pudwągi
Serve Bertyny * Pülz Pilec
Fischbach Niewodnica Deer stable Stachowizna
* Heiligelinde Święta Lipka Skatnick Skatniki
Heinrichssorge Henrykowo Mirror Korschen Grzybowo
Krakotin Krakocin Mirror Langheim Śpigiel
Lax doyen Łazdoje Stechernruh Wólka Pilecka
Marienhof Marzenin Stumplack
until 1928: Noble Stumplack		 Stąpławki
Ottoswalde Staniewo Wangotten Wanguty
* Pastern Pasterzewo * Wilkendorf Vilkovo

Pastor

At the church of Bäslack officiated as Protestant clergy until 1945:

  • Jacob Willamowius, around 1590
  • Albert Bartholomäi, until 1607
  • Michael Andreä, from 1608
  • Matthias Boretius, 1656–1668
  • Georg Mauritius, 1668–1677
  • Johann von Sehren, 1668–1689
  • Georg Gelenius, from 1677
  • Sebastian Andreä, 1689-1710
  • Johann Zwalick, 1697-1710
  • Johann Faber, 1710-1717
  • Stephan Neumann, 1710-1732
  • Albert Wengorowius, 1717-1732
  • Michael Pisanski, 1733-1738
  • Christian Krupinski, 1739–1777
  • Johann Ernst Uklanski, 1777–1799
  • Johann Friedrich Nippa, 1800–1824
  • Gottlieb Skupch, 1824–1826
  • Friedrich Porrmann, 1826–1867
  • Karl August Wilhelm Gayk, 1848–1852
  • Adam Krolczyk , 1852-1853
  • Otto Hartmut Czygan, 1853-1859
  • Carl Gustav Friedrich Sterz, 1859–1901
  • Karl Philipp Albert Sterz, 1901–1936
  • Konrad Heckel, until 1945

Church records

The church registers of the parish of Bäslack have been preserved and are kept in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin-Kreuzberg :

  • Baptisms: 1852-1944
  • Weddings: 1869 to 1944
  • Burials: 1878 to 1879, 1885 to 1944.

There is also a list of those killed in action between 1941 and 1944.

Catholic

Before 1945 only a few Catholics lived in the area of ​​the parish of Bäslack. They were incorporated into the parish Heiligelinde ( Polish: Święta Lipka ) until 1937 , then into the parish Wilkendorf (Wilkowo) in the then diocese of Warmia . After 1945, numerous new Polish citizens moved here, almost all of whom were Catholic. Supervised by the parish in Wilkowo, they used the previously Protestant church as a place of worship from the end of the 1970s, which they subjected to extensive restoration in 1988. It is now a branch church of the parish in Wilkowo, which belongs to the deanery Kętrzyn I in the current Archdiocese of Warmia .

Web links

Commons : Burg / Kirche Bäslack  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Bezławki - Bäslack at ostpreussen.net
  2. ↑ a b c d Walther Hubatsch , History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia , Volume 2 Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen 1968, p. 78, fig. 288, 289
  3. ↑ a b Walther Hubatsch, History of the Protestant Church in East Prussia , Volume 3 Documents , Göttingen 1968, p. 472
  4. ↑ The * indicates a school location
  5. ↑ Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Protestant Pastor's Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg 1968, p. 19
  6. ↑ Christa Stache, Directory of the Church Books in the Evangelical Central Archives in Berlin , Part I The Eastern Church Provinces of the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , Berlin 1992³, p. 23
  7. ↑ Bäslack at GenWiki