The tower of the St. Bartholomaei Church hails the guests already from a distance. The building of the church started at the end of the 13th century or at the beginning of the 14th century.
The brick building was redesigned by the Prussian builder Friedrich August Stüler in 1867. With a nearly 100 meter high tower the church belongs to the biggest municipal church in the Western Pomeranian area.
The name traces back to Jesus’ disciple Bartholomäus, also known as Nathanael in the New Testament, who was worshiped as a patron saint of guilds by immigrating settlers. The unusually light interior of the three-aisled hall church is currently restored according to Stüler submittals from 1867. Special features in the interior are neo-Gothic frescos and glass windows with scenes out of the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre.
When entering, the life-sized plaster sculptures in the quire as well as the Stünzel pulpit immediately catch the guest’s eye. It was modeled on the stone tower’s form and is created with five statues, the one of bishop Otto von Bamberg, the one of the Pomeranian duke Wartislaw I., the one of Alwinius, the first priest of the church, the one of Martin Luther as well as the one of Johannes Bugenhagen. A permanent exhibition deals with Otto von Bamberg’s person and missionary journey, which stopped off in Demmin. In 2011 the church celebrated the ten-year jubilee of the Buchholz organ.
