Trzesacz Church Ruins

The church at Trzesacz was built around 1400 roughly two kilometres inland. The Baltic cliff here is soft glacial till and retreats steadily - the long-term average is around half a metre to a metre a year - and over five centuries the sea reached the churchyard, then the church. Services stopped in 1874, the first wall fell in 1901, and pieces went down through the twentieth century until a single fragment of the south wall was left standing on the cliff edge, which is what remains today. It has been braced and a viewing platform built beside it, and it functions as one of the clearest illustrations of coastal erosion in Europe - photographs from each decade show the retreat plainly. The village around it is small and the coastal narrow-gauge railway that once ran here has been partly revived in season. The beach below is reached by stairs.

Highlights

• One wall left - a fragment of a church built around 1400, on the cliff edge.
• A retreating cliff - soft glacial till losing roughly half a metre to a metre a year.
• A viewing platform - built beside the braced remains.
• A dated record - photographs from each decade showing the sea arriving.

When to go

May to September. An hour.

Practical notes

There is very little left - this is a single wall and a viewpoint, not a ruin to explore. The platform is ticketed. The cliff edge is fenced for good reason. The village has minimal services.

Nearby

Rewal and Niechorze lighthouse are along the coast east.

Key facts