Kościół p.w. NMP Królowej Polski

In the village, nestled beside neighboring trees, it stands. Made of brick, embedded on a stone foundation, it is the perfect example of Gothic architecture - pointed arches, stained glass windows, and ribbed vaults. First built in the sixteenth century, fire has been its natural enemy. Repeatedly it has been rebuilt, so that bits and pieces of the structure originate from different centuries.

 It was here, beside the eighteenth century alter, that my great grandparents, Leo Schröder and Emma Gleffe Schröder were baptized. It was here, standing above, in the 17th century pulpit, Reverend Walter Bielenstein preached the last sermon before he and the rest of his flock were forced to leave their church and their homes at the end of World War II.

 I had thought, looking at the few pictures found online, that the church had been abandoned. I imagined a dusty, dark neglected cavern, left as a relic of a forgotten time, and a forgotten people. I imagined this, that is, until a certain German friend set me straight. Below you are looking at Kościół p.w. NMP Królowej Polski or Church of Our Lady Queen of Poland. The church, far from being abandoned, is still busy baptizing the children of Budowo.

From Website: http://spanie.pl/12-atrakcje-turystyczne-Budowo- 

Kosciol_p.w._NMP_Krolowej_Polski_-1974.html 

 Though the dogma preached from the 17th century pulpit is slightly different and the voices lifted in song are of another language, the ghosts of Budow's German parishoners must be smiling. For their church, still lives. It lives. 

 Until Next Time . . . 

 Information Sources: http://spanie.pl/12-atrakcje-turystyczne-Budowo-Kosciol_p.w._NMP_Krolowej_Polski_-1974.html http://www.hinterpommern-info.de/kirchspiel_budow.html http://www.powiat.slupsk.pl/index.php?dzial=dzieje&strona=zabytki&go=budowo&tlo=1 

http://www.stolp-pommern.de/Stolp-Kreis/Orte/budow.htm 

Email correspondence with Siegfried Krause.

© 12 September 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder