Village church Paretz, Gothic Revival church in Paretz, Germany
The Village Church Paretz stands on the former churchyard in the southwestern Schloss Park, its core of fieldstone from the 12th century. The pale yellow plastered building has a red tiled roof, a square tower with a clock and pyramidal roof, and a nave with three pointed-arch windows. The straight choir closes with a large tracery window rising into a pinnacled gable.
A chapel stood here by 1197, when Margrave Otto II donated Paretz to the Brandenburg Cathedral Chapter; fieldstone in the walls survives from that first building. The tower was added in 1700, partly in timber framing, and a Rococo pulpit altar by carpenter Frentsche of Ketzin followed in 1725–1727. In 1797 David Gilly and Martin Friedrich Rabe remodelled the church for Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm and Luise, adding tall pointed choir windows and a royal box; Friedrich August Stüler restored it in 1856–1857.
The parish belonged to the Cathedral Chapter of Brandenburg, not to a local lord, so Paretz was never a patronage church. Since 1968 the village has had no pastor of its own and is served from Ketzin. The Förderverein "Prinzessin Elisabeth Gesellschaft" from Wiesbaden works for the church's upkeep.
Visiting the interior requires advance contact with the church community, since the building is regularly used for services. It is best to explore the exterior freely and arrange a tour in advance to see the wall paintings and interior details.
The three 14th-century wall paintings in the choir were uncovered only in 1962 and 1991; they show the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Last Judgment, and include consecration crosses. The oldest bell has rung since 1724 and was still operated by rope in 2019.
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