The Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Kwakowo

The first wooden church in Kwakowo was probably built in 1208. After a fire in the 14^th Century, a new church was built of brick (making it one of the oldest monuments in this part of Pomerania), with typical ornaments featuring a glazed header, preserved in the tower front. Representative of the Gothic style, the church underwent numerous renovations. For example, in the 15^th Century, its collapsed entrance portal had to be rebuilt. Although resting on a sandy ground, the church’s foundation often sunk down due to peat deposits in the lower layers, causing numerous cracks. In the 17^th Century the church was taken over by the Protestants. At the turn of the 18^th Century the tower was extended and given the cupola we can see today. In the 19^th Century the structure no longer sufficed to accommodate local believers and in 1863 it was pulled down. Numerous erratic boulders found in the area were used as the building material for a larger temple in sham Gothic style, while the stone tower was retained in its original shape. The construction works were completed in 1865. Traces left by the tower windows testify to the height of the original church. At the dawn of the 20^th Century the graveyard was transferred from the churchyard to the edge of the forest towards Lubuń. The rectory preserved the record of baptisms and deaths produced in the 18^th Century. After 1940 the church was returned to the Catholics. The years 1959-60 saw the characteristic galleries (balconies) removed and the altar of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary installed. In the subsequent years, the floor laid down in Gothic brick (available after the Gothic church was pulled down) was replaced with a new ceramic-tile flooring. In 1973 the churchyard was enclosed with a new fence. The church building dates back to 1863, while the church tower is the oldest part of the construction, coming from the turn of the 15^th Century. The body of the former temple was pulled down in 1863 and substituted by a new structure made of stone, with a stone tower with a hipped roof and an octagonal lantern.