History
The church in Rusowo (German: Rützow) was to be built in the fourteenth century, in a settlement located on an important route leading from Kołobrzeg to the east and bypassing the dangerous areas of the coastal forest. Perhaps the brothers Heinrich and Hermann von Damitz, who bought the village in 1321, contributed to the construction. The Damitz family sold part of Rusowo in 1383, after which subsequent owners changed quite often. During the Reformation, the church was taken by Protestants. In 1684, a tower was to be built, or rather rebuilt in the upper part, because one of the bells was cast already in 1379 and the other in 1592. In 1945, the building became Catholic again, but its dedication was changed to Our Lady of the Rosary. The renovation of the monument, combined with the addition of the sacristy, was carried out in the 1980s.
Architecture
The church was built of eratic stones and bricks joined together with lime mortar. It was built on a rectangular plan, consisting of an aisleless nave, without the chancel separated externally, and after the fourteenth century it could be extended to the east. On the west side, a four-sided tower was added, initially in the upper part of the wooden or half-timbered structure. Two Gothic portals led inside. One in the southern wall of the nave, the other from the west through the porch in the ground floor of the tower. The interior, despite the use of external buttresses, was not vaulted.
Current state
Today, the body of the church is extended from the eastern side by a modern annex containing the sacristy, equal in width to the nave. The windows of the nave were modernized in the early modern period, and the upper part of the tower was also transformed, although, with the exception of the helmet, it does not differ stylistically from the Gothic forms. The interior has a modern look, without any medieval monuments (the oldest is the bell from the second half of the 16th century).
bibliography:
Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Regierungs-Bezirks Köslin, Die Kreise Köslin und Kolberg-Körlin, red. L.Böttger, Stettin 1889.
Kubicki D., Gotyckie świątynie powiatów koszalińskiego i kołobrzeskiego, Pelplin 2001.
Pilch J., Kowalski S., Leksykon zabytków Pomorza Zachodniego i ziemi lubuskiej, Warszawa 2012