Tom`s travels: Gubin, Neuzelle, Frankfurt & Fürstenwalde (17/09/2020)

On another nice sunny September weekday, I decided to do another day trip from Berlin this time heading southeast. I took then a regional train and reached the town of Guben and continued on foot. The town sits at the border with Poland where the other part of the town, Gubin is located. Once the two formed a single city but were separated into two different towns after the WWII border changes. Nowadays, the part of the town on the left bank of the Neisse/Nysa river is called Guben and in Germany, the one on the right is Gubin and in Poland. As I walked through the town on the german part i admired the nice 19th-century architecture with its elegant houses and palaces. Then I crossed the bridge over the river and entered Poland reaching what was once the old medieval town. Heavily damaged during the war, it now features some parts remaining as well as others that had been rebuilt such as the town hall. Right next to it stands the church of the Holy Trinity, the main parish church of the town. Nowadays just the skeleton of it is preserved after the bombings of the war, without a rooftop and windows but with the outer shell and the nice bell tower still intact. A plan had been proposed since the end of the war on its reconstruction, as is typical in Poland, but it was never carried out, however, things might start to move soon as I had read online. From there I then continued my walk and passed by the remains of the old town wall that once encircled the medieval settlement. The two remaining towers, the Ostrowska Towe and the Dziewicza Tower are a nice example of the 14th-century structure that characterized the defensive system of the town. Then I decided to look for a place to have lunch as it was already midday and I thought it would be great to eat in Poland once more. I found a place called Bar & Restaurant Iskra and ordered a breaded steak with potatoes and a side salad. The food was tasty and super cheap as expected and I was quite filled after it. After lunch, it was time to head back to the train station from where I took the next train taking me back to Germany and to the small town of Neuzelle. Here, I walked from the station and reached the main attraction, the Cistercian Neuzelle Abbey. The monastery was founded in 1268 by Henry the Illustrious, Margrave of Meissen, and Lusatia for the benefit of the soul of his deceased wife Agnes. Destroyed during the Hussite Wars in the 15th century and again during the Thirty Years War in the 17th century. Rebuilt after that it still stands to this day as one of the largest and most important in this area. One unexpected and amazing thing was that, since its founding and up to this day, the monastery had stayed in Catholic hands, even when the whole area around it had turned to Protestantism around 1550. This has thus created, after its last rebuilding, a beautiful Baroque architecture which is extremely rare in Northern Germany (due to Protestantism) and thus making it probably one of the most lavish and beautiful around. As I reached the monastery, I passed through the main gate and entered the grounds finding myself in front of the tall facade of the main church. I decided to visit it first and was immediately amazed as I entered. A beautiful array of Baroque decorations, sometimes heavy as they filled every nook and cranny, but nonetheless lavish and rich. Such as scene reminded me more of those typical baroque churches found in Austria or Bavaria, and was definitely surprising to see it here in Brandenburg where most were Gothic or more modern and sober. I stayed inside for a while admiring carefully those impressive details. Then, I headed out and explored the rest of the abbey's grounds. I walked around the nice Baroque garden which was recreated behind the main church and seemed like more was being added. From the garden, I then went back up to the grounds and visited the small church of the Holy Cross also featuring a beautiful Baroque decoration inside. Next to it a small walled hill, not accessible at that moment, contained what was once the vineyard of the monks that used to inhabit the monastery. As I walked around the grounds though I still noticed some monks going about their day and learned that they had come here from the Heiligenkreuz Abbey in Austria to restore the Neuzelle community. After I had seen enough of the place I decided to head back to the train station and from there take a ride to the next town Frankfurt. There are four Frankfurts in Germany, two villages and two cities. The most famous being Frankfurt am Main, and the least famous, Frankfurt an der Oder, which as the name suggests, sits next to the Oder river. This latter was the one I was visiting next, just a few minutes train ride. As with the case of Guben, Frankfurt used to span both sides of the river, however after world war II it was separated into two parts, the left bank staying to Germany and the right going to Poland and being renamed Słubice. In this case, what was once the old town remained in German hands, and that was the part I intended to visit. As I reached the city I first passed by and visited Sankt-Gertraud-Kirche. The church features a neo-gothic style so at first, I was not sure I wanted to go inside; furthermore, as I entered I noticed that the ground floor actually contained some offices and so I was soon ready to leave until I saw a sign saying the entrance to the church was up the stairs. I followed it and entered a mostly modern-looking church interior. In fact, the city of Frankfurt had been mostly destroyed during WWII and only partly rebuilt. The church I was in, having been originally built in the 14th century and then rebuilt during the 19th century in Neo-gothic style, had suffered damage too, but shortly after the war was repaired quickly. Nowadays, to the surprise of a visitor like me, it holds some really interesting pieces of art. The guardian of the church seeing me there asked if I needed some explanation; he only spoke German, and I didn't so I told him I was from Italy. He was surprised and happy and asked me, from what I could understand, why I was there and told me of his time visiting Italy. I answered I was there visiting so then he gave me some info on the objects contained there. All the objects there used to be inside the city's main church, the Marienkirche, and were transferred here in 1980 as the main church was being reconstructed; so far they haven't moved back. Inside was a beautiful chandelier dating to 1375, considered as one of the largest medieval chandeliers, the 1489 St Mary's altar, a beautiful gothic example of a wooden triptych and the late 14th-century bronze font with stories of Jesus. I was quite impressed and thanked the kind guardian for his effort to explain the history of those beautiful objects. Then, I headed outside the church and reached the Marienkirche, St Mary's church, the largest in town. Its construction started in the 13th century but was only completed around 1522. As mentioned, it had been nearly completely destroyed during the war and was restored much later, between the 80s and 90s of the last century. It is considered one of the largest Brick Gothic buildings in the country and its interior is quite empty but nice, tall, and airy. One interesting feature were the nice stained glass windows of the choir. I read on a signboard that three of them are the original gothic ones from 1370 and who were removed from the city right before the destructions. However, as the Soviet Army occupied Germany during and after the war, the stained glass windows were taken and kept in the storage of the Hermitage Museum. In 1991 the location of the stained glass was revealed by a newspaper and the city then formally asked for restitution, which was granted then in 2002. Three years later, another six panels were discovered yet again, this time in the Pushkin Museum, and finally returned to Frankfurt in 2008. After visiting the interior of the church, I then decided to walk around the exterior and admire the architecture from that point of view. What caught my attention, was the interesting bell tower, the only surviving of two which once flanked the facade, Its style was quite particular as it seemed to mix romanesque with Gothic, and it reminded me a bit of the bell towers found along the Amalfi Coast and Salerno. Particularly nice were also the two portals on the northern side of the church. Across the street from those portals, I then passed by the nice Gothic building of the town hall, which at the time of my visit was being refurbished and featured a lot of scaffolding. A little further on, I then passed by another church, the Friedenskirche, originally the oldest stone building in town but then refurbished in a neo-gothic style during the 19th century. Next to it was also a nice single nave large structure which once belonged to the Franciscan monastery and is now used as a concert hall. I was now close to the Oder river and decided to walk back along the bank and seeing the Polish part right across it. Then, I walked back through the city center and eventually to the train station where I took the next ride to the last town of the day, Fürstenwalde. This small town located along the Spree river was as many others in the area heavily damaged during the war, particularly its historic center. As I walked through the suburbs to reach the old town, I noticed some nice Wilhelmine buildings which survived the war, but then noticed the modern reconstructions as I approached the city center. The nice Gothic town hall from the 16th century was rebuilt after the war and features a nice clock tower. Not far, then the main church, St Mary's Cathedral was also reconstructed in a faithful way. Its Gothic main nave contrasts with the Baroque bell tower added a few centuries later. The church was closed so I was only able to admire it from the outside but I then found a small conical-shaped pillar which I read was supposed to be a dovecot. A sign next to it said it was made from tiles produced in the city and even contained a small dog kennel at its base. It was then time for me to go and I decided to walk along the Spree on the way back to the train station. After reaching it I then took the next train that headed finally back to Berlin.