Village church Wensickendorf

The village church in Wensickendorf stands on the village green in the north of Brandenburg. Built between 1401 and 1500 from field stones, it was repeatedly remodelled over the centuries and has been a protected monument since the late 20th century. After the Reformation the congregation turned Lutheran and today belongs to the parish of Liebenwalde within the Evangelical Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Silesian Upper Lusatia. A four-tier stone obelisk in front of the church remembers the dead of the First World War. The building combines medieval fabric with later additions. A fire in 1772 destroyed the wooden tower top, which was replaced the same year, changing the style towards early Gothic. In 1861 the interior was rearranged, creating a Baroque pulpit-altar from the former pulpit and high altar. A new brick tower top with a symmetrical tent roof was added in 1908–09, along with a three-bell peal and clock. Traces of the many changes are visible on the south and east walls, where former round windows have been bricked up. Inside, the rectangular nave ends in a single apse without side aisles. A restored Baroque pulpit-altar of 1691 dominates the east end, its carved figures of Christ and the four Evangelists partly hidden from view. Two angels above the pulpit recall an old communion custom in which worshippers moved from one side of the altar to the other. Late medieval wooden figures of Mary and Saint Anne stand in the apse corners, and a 17th-century stone font completes the fittings. Plain wooden pews seat about a hundred and twenty, and a modern organ plays on the west gallery.