Churches & monasteries

Ruins of the church in Trzęsacz

All that remains of the Gothic church of St Nicholas in Trzęsacz is a 12-metre stretch of wall, 6 metres high, standing on the edge of the cliff. The church, built at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries, originally stood about 2 km from the sea — the Baltic kept moving closer until it swallowed almost the entire building. It is Poland's best-known example of marine abrasion, the sea eating away at the land.

The church the sea would not spare

A wooden church stood in Trzęsacz in 1124; at the turn of the 14th and 15th centuries it was replaced by a brick Gothic one, raised from hand-formed bricks on a fieldstone foundation, measuring 23 by 9 metres. It ranked among the finest village churches of Western Pomerania, originally Catholic and, after the Reformation (the Trzebiatów sejm of 1534), Protestant. In the second half of the 18th century the sea began to expose the churchyard — it was closed in 1809, and the parish built a new church, completed in 1880.

What survived

Far more of the furnishings survived than you might expect. The Gothic triptych with a Madonna in the "Beautiful Madonna" type went to the church in Rewal; the early-Baroque altar of 1673 by Joachim Sellin now stands in the new church in Trzęsacz; the Renaissance stalls of 1583 are in the cathedral in Kamień Pomorski, and the bell of 1679 weighs 419 kg. The ruin itself — the southern wall of the church — is listed in the register of monuments.

Practical tips

The ruin rises right at the cliff edge, so the best view is from the beach below — especially at sunset, when the wall catches the warm light. It is a short stop on a coastal walk, but give yourself a moment to watch the edge of the land break away above the sand: the sea that took the church is still at work.