Templar Chapel

Originally a Templar castle chapel, later owned by the order of the Knights Hospitallers. This Gothic chapel was built in the 1280s. After serious damage caused during the Seven Years War, it was rebuilt and adapted, and between 1870 and 1898 - restored. It contains relics of a former granite Romanesque chapel dating from the middle of the 13th century which forms the lower part of the facade with a pointed arched portal. Stone from that chapel was also used in the construction of a massive plinth of the Gothic chapel. It is set on a rectangular plan, three-bayed, with a pentagonal eastern end. The interior is covered by rib-vaults supported by circular shafts, only in the polygon leading down to the floor. The walls are supported by massive buttresses and the facade is flanked by cylindrical towers topped by cupolas. The design of the building takes its origins from French castle chapels and is considered to be a symbolic copy of the Holy Sepulchre or the Temple of Solomon. Inside there are Gothic murals dating from about 1400, presently under restoration.

Source: templariusze.org

In 1232 Chwarszczany (Quartschen) became the seat of the Knights Templar, who ruled the land between Odra (Oder), Warta (Warta) and Mysla (Mietzel), which was given to them by Prince Wladislaw Odonic. The seat was built on a hill, which was surrounded by the river and moor and was easy to defend. The first stone building was erected around 1250, the chapel with two defense towers. After the reconstruction, this building still exists today. After the Knights Templar came the Knights of St. John, who owned the seat between 1312 and 1540.

Church of St. Stanisław in Chwarszczany - originally a Templar chapel, currently dedicated to St. Stanisław Kostka.
It is one of the most valuable monuments in Western Pomerania, dating back to the 13th century, when it was built by the Catholic knights' order and established its commandery here. The chapel is made of brick and is of appropriate size, showing the features of the early Gothic style, which it has retained to this day.
It is a single-nave building covered with a gable roof. An interesting feature here are two cylindrical towers partially embedded in the corners of the building, flanking the western façade in the place where corner buttresses were usually used. They rise above the roof and are topped with domes. The interior is uniform, covered with a cross-ribbed vault. The architectural decor is almost ascetic, which makes it look pleasing to the eye, different from the baroque churches full of satiety. Here you can see polychromes exposed during renovation.
Next to it there is a bicycle path, a parking lot and a rest area.