Slupsk - Kościół św. Jacka

Słupsk (Stolpe) was a Pomeranian settlement in the early Middle Ages. The Dukes of Pomerelia granted the town charter (Lübsches Stadtrecht) in 1265. A decade later merchants and craftsmen from Westphalia and Holstein founded a new settlement.

In 1294 Polish and Bohemian rulers tried to succeed in Pomerelia. Wenceslaus III awarded Stolp to the Brandenburg Ascanians After the fatal attempt on Wenceslas III's life, Wladyslaw I Ellenlang (aka "Ladislaus the Short") reasserted himself as ruler of Pomerelia in 1306 and declared themselves Brandenburg vassals in 1307.

In 1308, the Brandenburg margraves invaded and tried to militarily enforce their previously acquired rights. However, they were ousted from Gdansk and the eastern parts of Pomerelia by the Teutonic Knights. However, they were able to hold their ground in the land of Stolp.

In 1309, the Duchy of Pomerelia was divided between two feudal states. The western part went to the Brandenburgs, the larger rest including Danzig to the Teutonic Order. After Stolp became prosperous, the citizens acquired the port of Stolpmünde in 1337. In the 14th century the city was pledged to the Teutonic Order by the Pomeranian dukes, who were short of money because of numerous wars. Because the dukes could not redeem the town, but the inhabitants did not want to live under the rule of the Order, the citizens themselves raised the enormous redemption sum of 6,766 silver marks.

In devastating fires of 1395 and 1477 the town burned down. In 1478 the plague raged in the town. A dispute with the dukes that lasted for years impoverished the town and forced it to leave the Hanseatic League. During the Thirty Years' War, Stolp was conquered by Swedes in 1630. Wallenstein's troops occupied the town in 1637, and Swedish troops drove them out and completely ruined Stolp. After the war ended in 1648, Stolp fell to Brandenburg in the Peace of Westphalia.

Up to 1946, the then Lutheran church was known under the name "St. Johannis Schlosskirche". After WWII, the Catholic Church appropriated it. It received a consecration to St. Hyacinth of Poland in 1946, was known as St. Hyacinth Church and served the Polish Dominican Order. In 1981, a Catholic parish was also established at the church and since that this is "Kościół św. Jacka".

It was originally the church of the Dominican monastery founded in 1278. In its present form, the brick Gothic style building was erected in the 15th century. At the beginning of the 17th century, the interior of the church was baroqueized and a western slender steeple with a baroque copper-roofed dome was erected. The consecration of the restored church took place in 1602.

The epitaph of Anna von Croÿ.

She was the daughter of Bogusław XIII and his wife Klara, Princess of Brunswick. She was married to Ernest , Duke of Croy and Aerschot. The wedding took place in 1619. After a little more than a year Anna became a widow - Prince Ernst died during one of the French military expeditions.

Due to the conflict with the Catholic family of the deceased husband, she soon moved with her only son Ernest Bogusław, later the last Lutheran bishop of Kamien, and settled in Szcecin, where Anna's brother, Prince Bogusław XIV, took care of her.

Anna was buried in this church. The funerary monument was commissioned by her only son Ernst Bogislaw of Croÿ.