Dorfkirche Mellenthin, Gothic church in Mellenthin, Germany.
Dorfkirche Mellenthin stands on a triangular plot enclosed by a reddish stone wall. Its square choir is built of fieldstone with a two-zone eastern gable, a toothed frieze and stepped diamond panels; the nave is of brick with round-arched windows, and the west tower has a curved hood with an octagonal helm. A south portal incorporates a trough mill once used as a holy water basin.
The choir was built around the end of the 13th century, the nave at the start of the 14th as a filial of the Usedom Paulskirche, and the west tower followed in the 15th century. In 1755 the tower received its curved hood with octagonal helm. The von Neuenkirchen family appropriated the parish land during the Pomeranian Reformation, after which Mellenthin was served by the Morgenitz pastor.
The choir's ceiling paintings, made around 1420–1430, show Old and New Testament scenes and the martyrdom of Saint Erasmus; they were uncovered in the 1930s and are attributed to the workshop of St Mary's Church in Stralsund. The parish has been served by the pastor of Morgenitz since the von Neuenkirchen appropriated the parsonage land during the Reformation.
The church stands on a triangular plot where the Dorfstraße forks, enclosed by a wall of reddish stones, with the wooden gate in front and a tall conifer before the facade. The street runs from north and south into the historic centre and branches northeast toward the Mellenthin moated castle, so the church is reached on foot from the village. Volunteers from the parish look after the building.
On the south wall of the nave hangs a grave slab showing Rüdiger von Neuenkirchen, builder of Mellenthin's water castle, who died in 1594, and his wife Ilsabe von Eickstedt. An alliance coat of arms of the couple, somewhat later in date, is also set into the church. The von Neuenkirchen took over the parish land during the Reformation in Pomerania, after which the parish lapsed and Morgenitz's pastor has served Mellenthin ever since.
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