History
The first church that was erected in Szczecinek was built around 1310. It may have been brick, but the tower was not erected until the beginning of the 16th century. At the end of the 16th century, a reconstruction was carried out, using 14th-century bricks from the Marientron monastery near Szczecinek. The building that was erected at that time was owned by Protestants since the Reformation. In the second half of the 18th century, they rebuilt the church in the Baroque style. The church, with the exception of the tower, was demolished in 1909 after a new temple was built in the town.
Architecture
St. Nicholas’ church was a three-aisle building with a rather spacious, separate chancel on the eastern side and a tower on the west side. This tower was built of stones and bricks (also with little use of zendrówka bricks) on a quadrilateral plan with dimensions of 9.2 x 6.2 meters. It had five storeys and was covered with a hip roof. The wall thickness of the tower reached 2.5 meters, and the height was about 20 meters. In the ground floor of the west façade, a pointed, stepped entrance portal was made, at the level of the first floor, two very narrow and small openings illuminating the interior, and at the height of the third floor, slit openings transforming into longitudinal blendes. In addition, the elevations were diversified by regularly spaced putlog holes after the scaffolding used during the construction. The interior of the ground floor was vaulted, while the upper storeys were covered with flat ceilings placed on the offsets of the wall. Vertical communication was provided by narrow stairs in the wall thickness.
Current state
Currently, the only remnant of the church of St. Nicholas is a late Gothic tower. Unfortunately, on the site of the nave, there is a modern shopping center, completely obscuring the monument from the east. The tower is owned by the Museum of the Szczecinek Land, whose collection includes silverware, weapons and hunting accessories, as well as a rich scientific library.
bibliography:
Biała karta ewidencyjna zabytków architektury i budownictwa, wieża protestanckiego kościoła parafialnego p.w. św. Mikołaja, J.Dudź, nr 6757, Szczecinek 1987.
Pilch J., Kowalski S., Leksykon zabytków Pomorza Zachodniego i ziemi lubuskiej, Warszawa 2012.