Nikolaikirche

The Nikolaikirche stands on the north-east side of Anklam’s market square in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Built between about 1280 and the late 14th century, it was the second major medieval church after the Marienkirche and was finally completed around 1500 with the installation of its choir stalls. Named after Saint Nicholas, the patron of seafarers, the church became a landmark of Anklam and served as a visible guide for ships. The building is a three-aisled hall church of brick Gothic style, topped by a four-storey tower that once reached over 100 metres. Its slender spire, known for a visible twist near the top, formed one half of the city’s famous ‘twin towers’ with the Marienkirche. Inside, the church held rich furnishings including medieval wall paintings, elaborate chandeliers and the Apostelglocke, a 4 500 kg bell cast in 1450 by Rickert de Monkehagen. After wartime damage and collapse of the spire in 1945, only the tower stump and outer walls remained standing. Today the church is a protected ruin undergoing careful restoration. Visitors can walk the tower base and view the surviving Gothic arches and free-standing piers that mark the outline of the nave. A fragment of the twisted spire tip was recovered in 2022 and is displayed nearby. New stained-glass windows, including a 2004 replica of the original Nikolausfenster, now fill parts of the nave, and a pilot exhibition on Otto Lilienthal, the flight pioneer baptised here in 1848, occupies a section of the restored interior.