History
The village of Lubiatowo (German: Lübtow) was recorded in documents for the first time in 1235. A brick church was erected there at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1578, from the foundation of Marcus von Schöning, a Renaissance gallery and a patron’s bench were placed there. The equipment underwent further early modern changes in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the first half of the 18th century, a timber tower was added to the west, which was damaged in a storm in 1776, and then in the years 1854-1855 it was renovated and decorated with a new cupola. In the period from 1945 to around 1975, the building was abandoned and was subject to devastation. Only in the years 1974-1982 a thorough renovation was carried out, culminating in a consecration under a new dedication. In the years 1985-1986, a stylless sacristy was erected in the place of the tower.
Architecture
The church was built on a small hill in the middle of the village, with the use of untreated erratic stones, as well as bricks from which the corners and architectural details were created. Originally, it was a small, aisleless building on a rectangular plan with dimensions of 15.3 x 8.7 meters, having the simplest possible layout, typical for small villages. Initially, the church probably did not have any annex, and the tower, if it existed, was a free-standing, wooden structure.
The austere, buttresses-free façades of the church were separated by small windows and a stepped, pointed, chamfered portal set in the middle of the southern wall. Two windows with stepped jambs flanked the portal on both sides, and an oculus was placed right above it. A single, two-light window was inserted on the axis of the eastern wall. The western wall had an auxiliary entrance opening (pointed, stepped), while the northern façade was probably originally devoid of openings.
The roof of the church was set at the shorter sides on triangular gables. The eastern one was divided vertically with eight blendes, the middle of which had pointed heads, and the two extreme ones had half-arches. In addition, the two middle recesses were topped with a circular blende, and the gable itself was separated from the eastern wall with a plastered frieze cut in front of the corners. Five pinnacles, each with a hipped small roof, raise out from the edges of the gable. The western gable hasd a simplified decoration consisting only of pinnacles.
Current state
The church belongs to a group of well-preserved, rural, aisleless sacral buildings, typical of late-medieval Pomerania. The greater the pity is that today an ugly sacristy annexe has been added to it, covering almost the entire western façade, including the Gothic gable. The original features remain the southern elevation with two windows, a blendes and a portal, and the eastern elevation with a window and gable. The interior has modern design. Inside the sacristy, the second Gothic portal has probably been preserved.
bibliography:
Biała karta ewidencyjna zabytków architektury i budownictwa, kościół filialny p.w. MB Nieustającej Pomocy, W.Łopuch, nr 5369, Lubiatowo 1995.
Lemcke H., Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Regierungsbezirks Stettin, Der Kreis Pyritz, Stettin 1906.