Bützower Land

The town of Bützow was once the centre of the diocese of Schwerin and is surrounded by idyllic villages in the heart of Mecklenburg. The high tower of its collegiate church – a cultural monument of national importance – is visible from afar and defines the townscape.

Am Kirchberg 20, 18249 Baumgarten Ortsteil Qualitz

Church of Qualitz, Bützower Land

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Collegiate church in Bützow, Bützower Land

Today’s collegiate church in Bützow was begun in the second half of the 13th century as a collegiate church of the Schwerin bishops. Its initial layout was that of a basilica which was then amended to be completed as a three-aisled brick hall church with a chancel at the end of the 14th century. The 74-metre high tower was finished around 1450, and still has the inner wooden structure from the time of its construction. Of particular interest are: the priest’s gate (after 1250) and the bronze baptismal font (1474), the bell (1486), the winged Marian altar, made by a Lübeck carver, which can display three different scenes (1503), the Renaissance pulpit (1617), the Lüders-Karsten sundial (1765), the Friese III organ (1877) with the oldest case in Mecklenburg (ca. 1510).

Stiftskirche, Kirchenplatz 3, 18246 Bützow

Collegiate church in Bützow, Bützower Land

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Dorfstraße 38, 18249 Tarnow Ortsteil Boitin

Church of Boitin, Bützower Land

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Klosterstraße 3, 18249 Tarnow

Church of Tarnow, Bützower Land

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Klosterhof 1, 18246 Rühn

Church of Rühn, Bützower Land

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Besides the Bütow’s own Brick Gothic collegiate church, many other churches in the surrounding Bützower Land feature Brick Gothic elements, namely in Bernitt, Boitin, Laase, Moisall, Neukirchen, Qualitz, Rühn, Tarnow and Zernin. Each of the village churches is unique and worth a visit. Idyllically embedded in the gently rolling landscape between fields, forests and lakes, the centuries-old churches are still the centre of village life. Of the nine village churches in Bernitt, Boitin, Laase, Moisall, Neukirchen, Qualitz, Rühn, Tarnow and Zernin, the following two are particularly worth seeing: The village church of Laase features a seated carved Madonna (13th century), one of the oldest and most valuable Madonna figures in Mecklenburg, and village church of Bernitt which has medieval vault paintings (around 1330) that are among the oldest scenic representations in north-eastern Germany, although they were heavily reworked in the 19th century. Bernitt also has two bronze bells from the beginning of the 14th century.

Lange Straße 54 -55, 18249 Bernitt