Kołbacz Abbey — where Pomeranian brick architecture began

Monks from Denmark, 1174

The abbey began with a political arrangement. In 1173 the castellan of Szczecin, Warcisław II of the Griffin dynasty, brought Cistercians to this stretch of the Płonia, and Duke Bogusław I confirmed the foundation the same year. The first monks arrived on 2 February 1174 from Esrum in Denmark, a daughter house of Clairvaux. They had meant to call the place Mera Vallis, Pure Valley; the Slavic name outlived the Latin one.

Kołbacz grew into the economic centre of the land east of the Oder, founding daughter houses of its own — Oliwa near Gdańsk in 1186, Bierzwnik and Mironice — and accumulating dozens of villages and granges by the late Middle Ages.

The abbey church also served as a burial place for the dukes of Szczecin between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries; Świętobor I was interred here in 1413. For Pomeranian history the site is as much a dynastic memorial as a work of architecture.

The first all-brick building in the region

Construction started around 1210 in late Romanesque forms and finished in Gothic ones, the work running into the middle of the fourteenth century. The result is a basilica without flying buttresses, plain and austere as the order's rules demanded — no towers, no sculptural display.

What matters most is the material. This is held to be the earliest structure in Western Pomerania built wholly of brick, a technique the Cistercians brought from Denmark and one that went on to define architecture along the southern Baltic. Anyone following brick Gothic through Poland is standing here at its regional starting point.

Only part of the original survives. The star vaults over the nave date partly from about 1500 and were rebuilt in the mid-nineteenth century, and the side aisles came down in the eighteenth. The case for the site's national heritage status singles out the unusual carpentry of the main nave, put in when the interior was turned into a granary.

Granary in the nave, parish in the chancel

The Reformation ended monastic life here. The last abbot, Bartłomiej Schobbe, resigned on 16 October 1535 and was compensated by the duke; the estate passed to the ruling house. In 1555 the nave was converted into a grain store, while the convent buildings became first a ducal office and later a summer residence.

A second round of losses followed Pomerania's transfer to Prussia: from 1721 the monastic buildings were systematically pulled down, which is why the original quadrangle can barely be read on the ground today.

The split inside the church has lasted into the present. The chancel and transept work as the Roman Catholic parish church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, while the former nave is still used for storage. Around them stand the lay brothers' house of the mid-thirteenth century, rebuilt repeatedly and restored in the 1970s as a community centre, the abbot's house of the fourteenth century with its two-part portal, a tower that once served as a prison, and a fourteenth-century Gothic barn.

Heritage status and getting there

• Protection — on the register of monuments since 22 April 1955 and a Historic Monument of Poland by presidential regulation of 3 July 2014, covering the church, lay brothers' house, abbot's house, tower, sheepfold and manor.
• By car — about twenty kilometres southeast of Szczecin via Stare Czarnowo, and a little further from Stargard.
• By train — there is no station in the village; the nearest regular services are at Szczecin and Stargard, with a bus or car for the last leg.
• Around it — the Bukowe Hills and the Bukowa Forest begin to the west, and Lake Miedwie lies some three and a half kilometres to the east.

Before you go

This is largely an outdoor visit, and none the worse for it. A walk around the whole complex takes about an hour and a half, and works best in this order: the body of the church seen from the fields, then the lay brothers' and abbot's houses, then the tower and the barn. Done that way you grasp how large the working estate was and how little of it remains.

The interior is a functioning parish church, so access depends on the service timetable, and the former nave is not open to visitors. The village has a little over a thousand residents and no tourist infrastructure to speak of, which makes Kołbacz a stop between Szczecin and Lake Miedwie rather than a full day out — but a necessary one if brick Gothic is what you came to Poland for.

How to get there and practical info

Location

Kołbacz on the Płonia river, Stare Czarnowo commune, Gryfino county, West Pomeranian Voivodeship — about twenty kilometres southeast of Szczecin

Founded

1173 by Warcisław II, castellan of Szczecin; the monks arrived from Esrum in Denmark on 2 February 1174

Church

built from about 1210 into the mid-fourteenth century; the first building in Western Pomerania raised entirely in brick

What the designation covers

the church, lay brothers' house, abbot's house, tower, Gothic barn and manor

Protection status

register of monuments since 22 April 1955; Historic Monument of Poland by presidential regulation of 3 July 2014

Current use

chancel and transept serve as the Sacred Heart parish church; the former nave remains a storage space

Time needed

about an hour and a half to walk the whole complex

Current opening times and tickets

the interior is a working parish church and access follows the service timetable; heritage and event information is published by the official site of Stare Czarnowo commune

When to go