It is a valuable testimony to the multicultural heritage of the Wielkopolska region.

History of the structure

Okonek (German: Ratzebuhr) is a small town situated in the Szczecinek Lakeland, on Czarna River (right tributary of Gwda River), near moraine hills (the highest one is Tecławska Hill), on the road from Poznań to Koszalin. According to the description of the boundaries between the Crown and Pomerania from 1436 and later documents, Czarna River constituted a border between Wielkopolska and the Szczecinek Land in the Duchy of Pomerania (earlier, still at the beginning of the 13th century, the border ran further to the north, leaving the southern part of the Szczecinek Land in Wielkopolska). The oldest mention of Okonek dates back to 1547, when the prince’s court marshal Jakub Műnchow handed over the grange located there to prince Barnim X. Probably due to his initiative, a village was established in the place of the grange in 1554. In the second half of the 16th century and in the first half of the following century Okonek developed successfully, which was connected with its location at the crossroads of important trade routes: the March Route and the route connecting Wielkopolska with Pomerania. A local trade centre developed here. In the years 1582 and 1597, the Pomeranian prince Jan Fryderyk issued market privileges, pursuant to which three fairs were held annually in the settlement. As a result of the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Okonek and the entire land of Szczecinek came under the rule of Brandenburg. The successful development of the village was interrupted in the middle of the 17th century during the war with Sweden, when Okonek was destroyed by fire in 1658. During the last decades of the 17th and 18th centuries, the town underwent an economic revival, with the cloth industry playing a major role. In 1720 Okonek was incorporated into the Prussian state. In 1754 the settlement was granted municipal rights by the Prussian prince Frederick the Great. The successful development of Okonek was halted during the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763). In the second half of the 18th century, the town was a large centre of cloth making. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the territory of Okonek grew. In 1879 a railroad line from Szczecinek to Piła was opened. During the warfare in 1945 about 35% of Okonek’s buildings were destroyed.

The original Evangelical church in Okonek was built at the end of the 16th century. The wooden building was located in the eastern part of the settlement. In 1615, a small quadrilateral square was laid out around the church on the south side of the March tract. This temple was destroyed during the fire in 1658. Another church was built in the place of the old one in 1663. It was a timber-framed building with a tower. The brick church, which has survived to the present day, was built on the market square in the years 1854-55. At that time it was the church of St. Peter. Since 1945 it has served as the Roman Catholic parish church of Our Lady of the Redemption of Slaves. The name of the church is associated with the 16th-century painting of Our Lady Świętojańska from the Krakow church of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. In 1633, a miracle associated with the painting took place: a prisoner sentenced to death regained his freedom through the intercession of the Virgin Mary. Since then, the image has been considered miraculous and has been described as Our Lady of the Redemption of Slaves. The temple in Okonek is the only church in Poland bearing such a name.

Description of the structure

The church is located in the northeastern part of today’s town, near the intersection of Niepodległości and Chojnicka Streets. The wooded area of the former church cemetery was once surrounded by a wooden fence, set between brick posts, with a gate and a wicket on the northeastern side. Today this fence is gone, replaced by a low wall and a metal barrier.

The church consists of a nave and a narrower chancel closed on three sides adjoining it from the north-east. There are sacristies on either side of the chancel. From the south-west a square tower with a porch in the ground floor is adjacent to the nave. On both sides of the tower - two small annexes closed on three sides, with stairs leading to the music gallery. The nave is covered with a high gable roof, over the lower chancel and annexes at the tower - multi-slope roofs, over the sacristy shed roofs. The whole is dominated by a high, four-storey tower, covered with a soaring spire-like cupola, topped with a sphere and a cross.

The church is a brick building. It was built of brick on a stone foundation. The roofs are covered with ceramic tiles, and the tower cupola is clad with sheet metal. The red brick elevations of the church are divided by simple cornices and are crowned by corbel cornices. The windows and openings are topped with semi-circular arches. The elevations of the tower are single-axis, topped with triangular gables, with the main entrance to the church from the south-west side. The upper storeys of the tower have small windows and clock faces, while the top storey has large acoustic openings. On both sides of the tower, visible half-gables crowning the elevation of the nave, framed by pinnacles in the form of turrets covered with pyramid roofs. The side elevations are five-axial. On the north-west elevation axis - a side entrance enclosed by a modest portal house topped with a triangular gable. The windows are arranged in two rows, at the top - larger ones, at the bottom - smaller windows (currently bricked up). The north-east elevation is topped with a stepped gable, framed by turret pinnacles. The chancel has no windows, and there are round blind windows in the upper part of the walls. In the gable walls of both sacristies there are small entrances, in the side walls - windows.

The interior of the nave is covered by an open, decorative ceiling, planked and decorated with painted ornaments. The chancel is covered with a half-dome and opened to the nave with a wide rood arcade topped with a semi-circular arch. Above the rood arch there is a painted image of Our Lady of the Redemption of the Slaves - a copy of the miraculous painting from the beginning of the 16th century from the Krakow church of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, made in 2010 by Małgorzata Karpińska from Gdynia. In the south-west part of the church, a wooden musical gallery with a frame-panelled window sill was built in (earlier the galleries also ran along the side walls of the temple). The original fixtures and fittings of the church have not been preserved. Currently, the chancel contains wooden, non-polychrome sculptures made at the beginning of this century. On the wall behind the altar hangs the image of the Crucified - the work of sculptor Edward Iwański from Słupsk. Other sculptures - angels adoring Christ and the representation of the Last Supper placed in front of the altar table, as well as a pulpit decorated with animal symbols of the Evangelists and a baptismal font with a figure of St. John the Baptist on the cover was made by a local artist Janusz Biskup.

Visitor access. The church can be visited both from the outside and inside. More information about the parish and the Holy Mass schedule can be found on the website of the Koszalin-Kołobrzeg diocese: diecezjakoszalin.pl

Compiled by: Krzysztof Jodłowski, Regional Branch of the National Institute of Cultural Heritage in Poznań, 21.08.2017

Bibliography

• Łęcki W. [et al.], Wałcz, Złotów i okolice, guidebook, Poznań 1973, pp. 104-06.
• Mazurkiewicz M., Funkcje małych miasteczek i problemy ich rozwoju na przykładzie miast: Czarne, Lędyczek i Okonek, [in:] “Przegląd Zachodnio-Pomorski”, 1968, no. 1, pp. 95-119, 222.
• Miasta polskie w tysiącleciu, Vol. 1, ed. M. Siuchniński, Wrocław [etc.] 1965, pp. 588-89.
• Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego…, Vol. VII, ed. B. Chlebowski, W. Walewski, Warsaw 1886, p. 430.
• Śmigielski A., Złotów, Poznań 1995, p. 57.