Vitt Chapel

From 1806 to 1816, the small octagonal Vitter shore chapel was built, it is the romantic landmark of the place. The reason for the construction was the shore sermons of the Altenkirchen pastor Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten, the influx of visitors found in bad weather no more space in the small fishermen's huts, so it was decided to build this church modesty.

The Altenkirchen poet pastor Gotthard Ludwig Kosegarten initiated the construction of the shore chapel in order to be able to celebrate the shore services, which are also increasingly attended by people from outside, even in bad weather.
In 1806 the construction of the chapel began according to the plans of the Pomeranian master builder Rühs. The construction work was interrupted by the Napoleonic Wars and the shore chapel could only be completed and consecrated in 1816.

The chapel is a simple octagonal structure. The vestibule with the sacristy was added as early as 1852. The pulpit altar, designed in Romanesque and eclectic forms, was not added to the chapel until 1882.

Above the altar is a copy of the painting Der Sinken Peter (Mt 14, 22-33) by Philipp Otto Runge (1777-1818), made by the Stralsund painter Erich Kliefert.
The painting was commissioned by Kosegarten in 1805 as an altarpiece to his former Wolgast student. The (unfinished) original remained in Hamburg after Runge's early death in 1810 and is owned by the Kunsthalle Hamburg.

In 1990 the mural People in the Storm was executed by the Italian artist Gabriele Mucchi (1899-2002), one of the most important representatives of Italian realism.

The ecumenical church services take place on the last Sunday of every month at 3 p.m. in summer, just a ten-minute walk away.

Source: kirche-altenkirchen-ruegen.de/?p=117

The octagonal chapel of Vitt is located above the fishing village of the same name. The name probably derives from the word Vitten. Vitten was the medieval name for trading and landing places where caught fish was processed.
Since there is no charter of incorporation, the exact age of the village is unknown. According to reports by the Danish historian Saxo Grammaticus, Vitt belonged to the Slavic Jaromarsburg at Cape Arkona as a fishing and trading port as early as the 10th century.
Pastor Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten (1758–1818), who was working in nearby Altenkirchen at the time, regularly missed the Vitter Fischer at his sermons. Since the fishermen did not come to Altenkirchen for work-related reasons during the herring fishing season, the pastor had to hike to the fishermen on the steep bank of Cape Arkona and give open-air riverside sermons there.
Due to the weather dependency and at the suggestion of the pastor, construction of a chapel in Vitt began in 1806 based on designs by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. Completed in 1816, the new chapel had 8 walls and a wooden shingle roof, which no longer exists and was replaced by a thatched roof (called a reed roof on Rügen).
Schinkel was a Prussian architect who played a key role in shaping classicism and historicism. Many buildings and parts of buildings are based on his designs, e.g. the central tower of the Granitz hunting lodge.
Ultimately, the chapel enabled the fishermen to simultaneously attend the priest's sermons and always have a view of the sea.
Source: ruegenmagic.de/Kirchen-Ruegen/kirche-vitt.htm