The Church of Alt Jargenow in a Baroque Perspective

Pomerania suffered from different wars and crises during the mentioned centuries. Thus, the last Duke of Pomerania, Bogislav XIV, was forced to accept the treaty of Franzburg, where he promised in 1627 to deploy imperial troops under the commander Albrecht of Wallenstein in his territory during the Thirty Years’ War. Only a few years later, the king of Sweden, Gustavus Adolphus, entered into the war by landing on the island Usedom and squazing Bogislav into a contract against the Habsburg Emperor Ferdinand II. During the following years, Pomerania was badly damaged by acts of war, lootings and billeting of foreign forces. During the negotiations of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, Pomerania became of part Sweden, due of the death of the Bogislav XIV and hence the extinction of the House of Greifen.

Nevertheless, the conflicts didn’t cease during the Swedish reign in Pomerania in the peace treaty of Stockholm (1720), however, Brandenburg-Prussia received the territories south of the river Peene and Sweden’s period as a great power ended.

The small roofed hall with its segmental arched windows was built in 1625 on behalf of Christoph Altwich von Blixen. The original wooden church tower was demolished in 1768 and replaced by a half-timbered bell cage, which was also pulled down in 1815. From the 19th century on, the church of Alt-Jargenow had no tower until present times, but the main building and the chapel were reconstructed in 1869 and 1994.