St.-Marien-Kirche

The St.-Marien-Kirche in Pasewalk is a 14th-century hall church built in north German brick Gothic style. It stands in the town centre, replacing an earlier 12th-century field-stone market church first recorded in 1178. The present tower foundations and parts of the west wall date from the late 13th century, using roughly dressed fieldstone blocks common in Pomeranian churches of that period. The nave and aisles were added between 1325 and 1350 in red brick, forming a three-aisled hall with seven rectangular bays and a five-sided choir. By the early 15th century a polygonal chapel was added on the north side, and the tower was heightened with rich blind arcading. The church survived the Thirty Years War until 1630, when imperial troops set the tower ablaze and it collapsed into the nave, destroying vaults and roof. Reconstruction began in 1734 under Frederick William I, restoring the vaults and installing furnishings salvaged in 1795 from the ruined Marienkirche in Stettin. A major 19th-century restoration by Friedrich August Stüler and Landbaumeister Brockmann raised the tower another storey, added an octagonal spire, and reshaped the façades. The Kaltschmidt organ of 1863 became one of Pomerania’s largest, but both tower and instrument were lost when the structure collapsed in 1984 after storm damage. Inside, the nave is divided by eight clustered piers with foliage capitals supporting ribbed vaults. High, slender three-light windows light the side aisles and simple buttresses. The north chapel holds a star vault, and a small octagonal stair turret leads to the loft. The neogothic high altar and pulpit, with reliefs of Luther, Bugenhagen and Melanchthon by Friedrich Wilhelm Dankberg, flank a copy of Raphael’s Christ Carrying the Cross. Five new bells, cast in 1993, ring from the rebuilt 78.5-metre tower topped by a 5.2-metre crown of sphere, cross and connecting piece.