Church ruins Hoff

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Church ruins in 2011
Hoff Church before it crashed in 1870
2009
Church ruins in 2012

The church ruins of Hoff (Polish: Trzęsacz ) are an attraction on the Pomeranian Baltic coast .

history

The church , built in the second half of the 15th century , was used for a long time as a place of worship for the nearby property. At first it still had a wooden tower built in 1650, but it was destroyed by lightning in 1760, and in 1818 it was completely demolished.

When it was built, the church was about two kilometers from the coast . But the sea on the cliff drained more and more and approached the church. In 1771, for example, the cathedral chapter and the district administrator ordered the churchyard to be demolished by halfway towards the beach and further burials to be carried out at a new location. But this only happened 40 years later.

In 1772 the first security concerns for the church itself arose, and Pastor Bahnemann and the community leaders wrote to Frederick the Great . In it they report that the church is no more than ten paces from the shore and that “ they are forced to demolish it in Kurtzem and have it rebuilt in another place, regardless of whether it is one of the oldest and best buildings in Pomerania . “However , the king declined her request for a nationwide collection .

102 years passed before the Church met its fate. Large storms in 1843, 1853 and 1855 meant that the distance between the abyss of the steep bank, over 20 meters high, and the church was only a few feet. The Upper Government Councilor Heegewaldt , who was called in the following year , stated a sum of 22,000 thalers for a stone protective wall and ordered the Greifenberg district administrator to close the church in the coming year. The local manor owner began, however, contrary to the opinion of the authorities, with the creation of a fascine plant that was supposed to secure the church. Long disputes between the manor, the parish council and the pastor did not lead to any result, and the last service was held in August 1874 . In 1885 the roof structure was removed and the masonry auctioned. Most of the church furnishings went to the Camminer Cathedral Museum, including a splendid late-medieval triptych . Further pieces went to the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin . A figure of Peter from the church came into private hands at the time; it was acquired by the Pomeranian State Museum in 2012 with a donation from the Pomeranian Landsmannschaft .

In 1900 the first crash occurred on the north-west corner, followed by the entire north face in 1901. Little by little, larger and larger parts disappeared into the depths. Massive protective structures have been preventing the church from slipping further since 2004. Part of the south wall with three arches is still standing.

Lionel Feininger and the Church

The von Hoff ruins were a very special motif for the painter Lyonel Feininger . About 30 drawings, watercolors and paintings were made by Feininger, who spent many summers on the Baltic Sea and visited the ruins several times . Long after his expulsion to the USA , he was concerned with the ruins of Hoff, because in America "... there was nothing that could be compared with ..."

literature

  • A village church as the bride of the sea. Hoff on the Baltic Sea . In: Karl Theodor Gaedertz : What I found on the way . Leipzig 1902, pp. 201-215

Web links

Commons : Church ruins in Trzęsacz  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The Pomeranian Newspaper. No. 37/2012, p. 2.
  2. ^ Lyonel Feininger, The Ruin by the Sea - Introduction by Elia Kokkinen, edited by William S. Lieberman. The Museum of Modern Art, New York , 1968. (exhibition catalog)

Coordinates: 54 ° 4 ′ 39.8 ″  N , 14 ° 59 ′ 34.1 ″  E