ŚWIĘTA LIPKA / Heiligelinde

    A monastic Jesuit complex and St. Mary’s Visitation indulgence church are the most precious baroque
structures in Poland. The first references to pilgrimages made to miraculous St. Mary’s figure go back to 1473.
In 1482 a Teutonic priest Szymon is mentioned as the chapel’s guardian.

    In 1519 Albrecht Hohenzollern – the last grand master
of the Teutonic Order – made a pilgrimage to this sacred place, travelling on foot from Königsberg. Six years later, after the Order’s secularisation when he was given a title
of prince, pilgrimages were prohibited and the townsmen
from Kętrzyn demolished the chapel.

    In 1687 the Jesuits started the construction of the present church. At the beginning of the 18^th century it
was already an imposing shrine surrounded by cloisters
with chapels in the corners. In the years 1719-1721 a magnificent organ constructed by John J. Mosengel from Königsberg was installed and in 1734 John Schwartz from Reszel forged an elaborately ornamented gate.