Church of the Nativity of the Virgin (Wieliczki)

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Wieliczki (Kościół Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Wieliczkach) Wielitzken Church (Wallenrode)
The once Lutheran, now Catholic parish church in Wieliczki (Wielitzken / Wallenrode)
Construction year:	1674–1676 tower: 1693/94
Inauguration:	1676
Style elements :	Wooden church
Client:	Evangelical Church Community Wielitzken ( Church Province of East Prussia , Church of the Old Prussian Union )
Location:	53 ° 59 '4.9 "  N , 22 ° 34' 5.1"  E Coordinates: 53 ° 59 '4.9 "  N , 22 ° 34' 5.1"  E
Address:	ul.Lipowa Wieliczki Warmia-Masuria , Poland
Purpose:	Roman Catholic (until 1945 Evangelical Lutheran ) parish church
Parish:	ul. Lipowa 26 19-404 Wieliczki
Diocese :	Ełk

The Church of the Birth of Mary in Wieliczki ( German  Wielitzken , 1938 to 1945 Wallenrode ) was built in the second half of the 17th century. It was an Evangelical Lutheran church in East Prussia until 1945 and is now a Roman Catholic parish church in the Polish Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship .

altar

Geographical location

Wieliczki is located in the east of the Warmia-Masurian Voivodeship , seven kilometers southeast of the district town of Olecko (Marggrabowa , colloquially also Oletzko , 1928 to 1945 Treuburg) . Provincial road 655 runs through the place , and the place is called "Wieliczki Oleckie" railway station on the Olecko – Suwałki railway line, which is no longer in regular operation .

The church is located in the center of the village south of “ul. Lipowa “through road (DW 655).

Church building

The first church built in Wielitzken was burned down during the Tatar invasion in 1656. In 1658 a new building was built, but it soon fell victim to a hurricane . So between 1674 and 1676 a new church was built as a wooden church on a stone foundation , initially without a tower.

The building, whose inauguration year 1676 is noted inside on a beam of the pulpit , had a choir closed on three sides and is one of the very few surviving East Prussian wooden churches from that time. The wooden west tower with its square base was added in 1693/94.

The interior of the church received a flat wooden ceiling and galleries running around the triumphal arch . The carved altar dates from the beginning of the 18th century and is the work of the sculptor Schöbel from Marggrabowa . The pulpit is said to have donated the Wielitzken pastor Gizycki (also: Gisewius) in 1712. The congregation had them painted and decorated with pictures and carvings that u. a. should remind of the time of the crime on the sound cover and on the parapet. The pulpit does not come from the same workshop as the altar. The font was put together in the 19th century from parts from around 1660.

In 1908 the church received an organ from the Königsberg workshop Novak . It was restored in 1920. The church bell consisted of two bells that were cast in 1660 and 1762 respectively.

The church suffered severe damage during World War I and was restored between 1925 and 1927. Ernst Fey ( Berlin ) painted the interior of the nave .

The church building, which had been Protestant until then, was used for Catholic worship services from 1946, which also made structural changes necessary for liturgical purposes. Rededicated to the Catholic parish church, it was given the name Kościół Narodzenia Najświętszej Maryi Panny ( Church of the Birth of the Virgin ).

Parish

Evangelical

Church history

Wielitzken was already a church village in the pre-Reformation period . The Reformation arrived in the first half of the 16th century. Initially, the parish belonged to the Lyck Inspection ( Polish Ełk ), until 1945 it was incorporated into the church district Oletzko / Treuburg (Polish Olecko ) in the church province of East Prussia of the Church of the Old Prussian Union .

The Wielitzken Church before 1945

From 1552 onwards, the Wielitzken church had its own pastor, to whom a second clergyman was added between 1600 and 1745.

In 1925 the parish had 4008 parishioners who lived in more than twenty parish villages . In 1934 Werner Marienfeld took up his first pastor here. Flight and expulsion of the local population made church-evangelical life no longer possible after 1945. To date, only a few Protestant church members have settled in the Wieliczki region. You orientate yourself to the churches in Ełk , Suwałki and Gołdap , which are located in the area of ​​the Masurian diocese of the Evangelical-Augsburg Church in Poland .

Parish locations (until 1945)

The parish Wielitzken (from 1938: Wallenrode) included 19 towns, villages and places of residence in addition to the parish:

Surname	Change name from 1938 to 1945	Polish name		Surname	Change name from 1938 to 1945	Polish name
Broncke				Neumühl		Nowy Młyn
Czarnia				* Niedzwetzken	(from 1926 :) Bärengrund	Niedźwiedzkie
* Dombrowa				Nordenberg		Norki
* Gutten		Guty		Nordenthal	Northern valley	Nory
Jelittken	Suffered	Jelitki		* Puchowken	(from 1929): Wiesenfelde	Puchówka
* Little Oletzko	Herzogshöhe	Małe Olecko, also: Olecko Małe		Wrestling		Rynie
* Kleschöwen until 1936: Kleszöwen	Clapping	Kleszczewo		* Sobollen	Richtenberg	Sobole
Lindenhof		Lipkowo		Starosten	Mullersbrück	Starosty
* Markovsks	Markau	Markowskie		* Willkassen		Wilkasy
				* Woynassen	Woinassen	Wojnasy

Pastor (until 1945)

At the church Wielitzken resp. Wallenrode officiated as Protestant clergy:

• Stanislaus Ribinski, from 1552
• Paul Baranowius, 1591-1608
• Lazarus Baranowius, 1600–1625
• Johann Pogorselius, 1625
• N. Baranowius, until 1650
• Johann Galini, 1651-1657
• Michael Gisewius (Gizycki),
  1654-1682
• Georg Columbus, 1657–1671
• Wilhelm Gisewius (Gizycki), 1671–1688
• Michael Gisewius (Gizycki), 1683-1699
• Matthias Preuss, 1690–1744
• Friedrich Zielinski, 1699–1745
• Samuel Gisewius (Gizycki), 1716–1737
• Gottlieb Trentowius, 1737–1739
• Georg Hermann Olschewius, 1739–1746
• Johann Friedrich Faber, 1746–1797
• Christian Friedrich Wolff, 1778–1793
• Gebhard Friedrich Schrage, 1793-1837
• Carl Heinrich Schrage, 1838–1858
• Gottfried von Brzoska, 1858–1874
• Viktor Hensel, 1874–1899
• Paul Gottlieb Kelch, 1900–1928
• Werner Marienfeld , 1936–1945

Church registers (until 1945)

From the time of the Protestant parish Wielitzken resp. The following church records have been preserved in Wallenrode and are kept in the Evangelical Central Archive in Berlin-Kreuzberg :

• Baptisms: 1833 to 1884, 1899 to 1942 - Lists of names: 1800 to 1869
• Weddings: 1844 to 1879, 1918 to 1944 - Name lists: 1738 to 1879, 1918 to 1943
• Burials: 1852 to 1890 - Lists of names: 1751 to 1841.

There is also a list of those killed in action in 1870/71.

Roman Catholic

Church history

Before 1945 there were very few Catholic residents in the Wielitzken region. They were included in the parish church in Marggrabowa (Oletzko / Treuburg) in the Diocese of Warmia . In the period after the Second World War , numerous Polish citizens settled here, almost all of whom were Catholic. They celebrated their services in the previously evangelical church, which was assigned to them and which was elevated to a parish church. Wieliczki has had its own parish since 1956. A newly built branch church in Kleszczewo (Kleschöwen , 1938 to 1945 Kleschen) is assigned to it.

Parish places (since 1946)

In addition to the parish, fourteen smaller towns and villages belong to the area of ​​the parish Wieliczki:

Surname	German name		Surname	German name
Guty	Gutten		Nory	Nordenthal 1938–1945: Nordental
Jelitki	Jelittken 1938–1945: Suffered		Nowy Młyn	Neumühl
Kleszczewo	Kleschöwen 1938–1945: Kleschen		Puchówka	Puchowken 1929–1945: Wiesenfelde
Lipkowo	Lindenhof		Sobole	Sobollen 1938–1945: Richtenberg
Małe Olecko also: Olecko Małe	Klein Oletzko 1938–1945: Herzogshöhe		Starosty	Starosten 1938–1945: Mullersbrück
Markowskie	Markowsken 1938–1945: Markau		Wilkasy	Willkassen
Niedźwiedzkie	Niedzwetzken 1926–1945: Bärengrund		Wojnasy	Woynassen 1938–1945: Woinassen

literature

• Paul Kelch, pictures from the cultural and church history of the Protestant parish Wielitzken , Wielitzken 1927
• Werner Marienfeld, Wallenrode, formerly Wielitzken Kreis Treuburg - a Protestant parish in East Prussia (Rotaprintdruck) 1960
• The church in Wallenrode , in: Treuburger Zeitung 70, 1953 No. 23ff.

Web links

Commons : Church of the Nativity of the Virgin in Wieliczki  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Wieliczki - Wielitzken / Wallenrode (with historical pictures of the church)
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Walther Hubatsch , History of the Protestant Church of East Prussia , Volume 2 Pictures of East Prussian Churches , Göttingen 1968, p. 116, fig. 529-530
3. ^ Gallery of historical pictures of the Wielitzken Church from the time before 1945
4. ↑ ^{a b} Walther Hubatsch, History of the Evangelical Church of East Prussia , Volume 3 Documents , Göttingen 1968, p. 484
5. ↑ ^{a b} Friedwald Moeller, Old Prussian Evangelical Pastors' Book from the Reformation to the Expulsion in 1945 , Hamburg 1968, p. 149
6. ↑ The * indicates a school location
7. ↑ ^{a b} v. Brzoska (1808–1882) and Hensel (1834–1899) were members of the Corps Masovia .
8. ↑ Church records Wielitzken / Wallenrode in the Evangelical Central Archive
9. ↑ ^{a b} Parafia Wieliczki in the Diocese of Ełk ( Memento of the original from 23 September 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.