turystyka

Old Town Square according to an engraving from 1839

Stargard would still be worth visiting even if houses of worship were the only historic buildings in town. Among them is the unparalleled harmony of St. Mary's church, one of the most magnificent Gothic churches in Poland, and
the soaring structure of St. John the Baptist's church that inspire awe and amazement.
The history of Christianity and churches in Stargard is almost 900 years old. The beginnings are marked by the first mission of Otto I of Bamberg to Pomerania in 1124.
The mission was inspired by a Polish duke, Bolesław III Wrymouth. Over the last nine centuries about twenty churches and chapels were built; this number does not include temples, Jerusalem chapels or two synagogues, which are known only from drawings, plans or by their names only. Sources do not give any information about pre-Christian temples in Stargard.
One church which did not survive into the present was erected around 1200 and discovered during archaeological works in Wita Stwosza Street, and is considered to be the first of its kind in Stargard. It was located on the site of later post-monastery church of the order of the Hermits of St. Augustine, in the market settlement. Until that discovery, St. Martin's church located between the granary and Mill Gate had been considered the oldest church.
In the 3rd quarter of the 13th century two monastery churches were built. A church of the Order of St. John - St. John the Baptist's Church (patron saint of the town since 2003), which in time turned into a municipal one.
St. Augustine's church, demolished between 1819 and 1820, became a Calvinist church after the Reformation. The church was erected on the site of the oldest church and later became known for the 'most vibrant pipe organs
in Pomerania'. In 1292 near the market square the construction of St. Mary's Church commenced – the pride of Stargard and a model for many churches on the southern coast of the Baltic.
In the 14th and the 15th centuries chapels were built outside the city walls, in four suburbs, as a rule next to hospitals: St. George's, St. Gertrude's, St. Judoc's, St. Erasmus, St. Jacob's, the Church of the Holy Spirit and five Jerusalem Chapels, none of which have survived.
In the 15th century a church was built in Kluczewo district, currently the Holy Cross Church.  
No new Christian house of worship was built in the town between the end of the 15th and the mid-19th century.
The existing ones were either extended or rebuilt to repair damage they had suffered. That was the result of wars and economic depression in Pomerania.

The rapid economic development of Stargard after 1850 resulted in the revival of church building. It was then that neo-Gothic churches were erected: St. Joseph's (demolished after World War II), the Holy Spirit Church, the Church of the Transfiguration (today Polish Catholic), Christ Church (today Saint Apostles Peter and Paul Orthodox Church), the Church of Our Saviour (burnt down in 1947) and Lutheran House demolished after 1945. 

Four new Roman-Catholic churches were built in Stargard after the town became a Polish one: the monumental Church of God's Mercy, Church of Christ the King, Church of the Transfiguration, Sacred Heart of Jesus, St. Jozafat Kuncewicz Greek Catholic Orthodox Church and a new seat of the Pentecostal Church.
It is also worth noting that locate here is the largest concilliation cross in Poland, and the second largest in the world, which was erected in 1542.