Relics of the former St. Catherine's Church in Bytów
The church was destroyed in the last phase of World War II, probably by Soviet troops stationed in the city. It was a single-nave building with a wooden ceiling. From the last church, only the church tower survived, to which the probable Gothic form of the roof was restored.
In 2001, in connection with the intention to develop the area of "Plac Garncarski" and the area of the former St. Catherine's Church, archaeological and architectural research began. The field research has been largely completed, but there is no final report containing the research results yet.
The research results to date allow us to distinguish 4 main periods in the history of the church, differing primarily in the architectural form of the building. The most interesting, and at the same time the most important form, was from the first half of the 14th century - field research provided a lot of information. It was a two-nave building (with a northern nave), and the southern nave was added only later. The first building was without a tower, with a polygonal apse closing the presbytery. Wooden ceiling, inter-nave wall: four octagonal brick pillars with arcades.
Two burial crypts were discovered:
a crypt with stone walls, covered with a brick vault, in the central place of the presbytery.
a crypt with brick walls, located on the northern side. After modernization, it was used for the reburial of remains discovered during archaeological research.