History
The church in Dąbrówka was built around the mid-fourteenth century, as indicated by similar brick fittings to those used in the Stargard parish church. It was probably built under the patronage of the Teutonic Order. It could have been devastated during the Polish-Teutonic wars of the 15th century, as it is known that the village suffered losses during the Thirteen Years’ War. In the 16th century, the church was a branch of the parish in Jabłowo, and then in Bobowo. In the years 1566 – 1596 it was in the possession of Lutherans. Dąbrówka was completely destroyed and depopulated during the Swedish-Polish wars, so in 1682 it was granted to the administrator, Thomas von Grabzewski, as completely abandoned. Nothing was mentioned about the condition of the church at that time. In 1917, a separate parish was established in Dąbrówka.
Architecture
The church was built of bricks laid in a Flemish bond on a stone plinth. It was created by a small, aisleless nave on a rectangular plan with dimensions of 14.8 x 7 meters, without an externally separated chancel, a four-sided tower on the west side and a sacristy on the north side. On the south side, a porch was added in front of the entrance.
The tower was reinforced at the corners with buttresses. It was covered with a hip roof, while the gable roof of the nave was based on the east on a Gothic gable, filled with white, rectangular blendes, separated by pilaster strips turning into pinnacles. The porch was also crowned with a similar gable, although there was no plastered frieze on it, which decorated the façades of the nave.
The interior of the church was illuminated by medium-sized pointed windows and paired ogival openings on the top floor of the tower, embedded on each side in stepped jambs. There were no vaults inside, only a timber ceiling above which an attic functioned, lit by two small openings pierced through the eastern gable.
Current state
Today, the church is a picturesque, small, rural sacral building, renovated at least several times in early modern times, but still having a Gothic character from the outside. The interior has lost its medieval stylistic features, there is only a Gothic sculpture from the first half of the 15th century.
bibliography:
Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler der Provinz Westpreußen, der Kreis Pr. Stargard, red. J.Heise, Danzig 1885.
Grzyb A., Strzeliński K., Najstarsze kościoły Kociewia, Starogard Gdański, 2008.