Maria Meeresstern (Sellin)
Maria Meeresstern is the name of the Catholic Church in the Baltic Sea resort of Sellin on Rügen . In keeping with the location, the name takes up the old Marian title Stella Maris .
The church was consecrated in 1912 under Pastor Maximilian Kaller , in close proximity to the Catholic churches of St. Bonifatius in Bergen (1912) and the Heart of Jesus in Garz (1913).
Since the increase in spa tourism in the last quarter of the 19th century, the desire to give Catholic vacationers on Rügen the opportunity to attend church services had come alive. This happened in various provisional arrangements since 1906.
An impressive building site on the level of the steep bank was obtained for the Sellin church. The Cologne government architect Heinrich Krings designed the building in the style of historicism with Romanesque and Gothic elements. The design is that of a small basilica .
In 1949 the church was placed under the Binz Curate .
A special feature is the annual island pilgrimage to the Sellin church. For the first time on Whit Monday 1951, several hundred displaced persons with Bishop Wilhelm Weskamm revived Catholic customs. In 1952 the pilgrims donated an altar of Our Lady carved by Georg Tyllack. Since the pilgrimage did not please the GDR authorities, who among other things declared the area near the shore a border area at night, it was moved to Bergen at the end of the 1960s.
In 1995, extensive renovation work led by the architect Gustav Nitz was completed. The pilgrimage tradition has been resumed since Pentecost 1996.
literature
- Matthias Brühe: Catholic Church in Western Pomerania. A portrait of the churches and parishes for locals and guests. Press office of the Archdiocese of Berlin (ed.), Berlin 2000, p. 32.
Web links
- Maria Meeresstern on the website of the parish
Coordinates: 54 ° 22 '49.9 " N , 13 ° 42' 4.9" E