Architecture in Trzebiatów is dominated by historical forms from the Middle Ages to the early 20th century. Within the defensive walls, Trzebiatów has preserved over 50% of its historic buildings. The city features architectural elements from the Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Neoclassical, and Modernist periods.
Middle Ages to the Renaissance
The urban layout of Trzebiatów dates back to the granting of city rights in 1277 by Barnim I. The city was established under Lübeck law, resulting in a regular medieval town plan with a market square and a chessboard street grid. The designated area within the medieval fortifications covered 35 hectares and was divided into quarters and plots. The irregular rectangular plan, with rounded corners on the eastern side, included the site of the ducal residence and the oldest Church of St. Nicholas. Around 1285, the buildings on the hillfort were converted into a female monastery, inhabited by the Premonstratensians from the monastery in Mirosławice.
At the city's center, a market square measuring 94 by 104 meters was created, while the construction of the town's parish church was planned in the quarter to the northeast. Another small quarter near the Gryficka Gate was designated for a chapel and the Hospital of the Holy Spirit. The quarters, shaped as squares and rectangles, were formed by a regular network of 14 streets intersecting at right angles, with slight distortions in the eastern part. The plots were divided into 23 quarters.
In 1299, Trzebiatów was granted permission by Bogislaw IV to build defensive walls and moats (which were completed by 1337). The city had four gates: Kołobrzeg Gate, on the route to Kołobrzeg before the bridge over the Młyński Canal; Gryfice Gate, on the route to Gryfice; Żeglarska Gate, leading to the northwest; and Łaziebna Gate, on the way to . During the construction of the defensive walls, the digging of a wet moat began, which strengthened the city's defense system, especially on the southern, eastern, and southwest sections (near the Gryfice Gate). The fortifications were completed by 1432.
According to the cadastral map of Trzebiatów from 1730, the plots were sized at 9.50 × 36 meters, with those near the defensive walls being half the size. The wealthier citizens had access to the larger plots, while the poorer population occupied the smaller ones. In total, approximately 200 plots were designated in Trzebiatów during the medieval period, although not all were built upon. By the early 14th century, the population of the town was about 1,500 people.
The first houses were built, like in the Slavic era, from wooden beams or interlace. The buildings on the plots were constructed over a period of between 20 and 25 years. Brick houses likely began to appear only towards the end of the 14th century, due to the growing wealth of the burghers (especially merchants). Frequent fires that plagued the city are evidence of the wooden construction in Trzebiatów. The first fire broke out in 1344, destroying the mills, the monastery, and the northern part of the city, the second occurred in 1377, though there is no data on its consequences. The third fire ravaged part of the city in 1496. The first brick houses were built around the market square (however, not all houses were entirely made of brick). The brick used came from a local brickworks, which in 1307 was sold by the Premonstratensians to the town council.
The houses in Trzebiatów were built with gable ends facing the streets. The gables, with two rows of attic windows, were either triangular or stepped. The plots were developed up to about half of their length. The front part was occupied by residential houses with workshops and offices. Behind the houses were outbuildings, usually located on the left side of the yard. The yard walls and outbuildings were mostly built with the use of framing. Medieval houses were partially cellarized at the front and had wooden ceilings.
The plot sizes in the Baltic region ranged from 8 to 9 × 25 to 27 meters. Typically, 2/3 of the plot was built upon. The house had a length of 15 meters. Residential buildings were three-bay, with the main entrance in the center and two windows on the sides. The space of the entire house was filled with a lobby, with a height of 3–4 meters, only a small room (in the right corner) was built. Behind the room, which served as an office, was the kitchen, and at the yard wall, there were stairs leading to the mezzanine. In the yard wall, there was an entrance to the courtyard and to the outbuilding, where the residential part was located. In early development houses, the upper floors housed storage spaces for transport goods.
A late Gothic and early Renaissance composition with a decorated façade is the house at 27 Rynek Street, divided at the ground level by a portal and two wide windows. The gables with volute-shaped edges are accentuated by horizontal cornices. According to iconographic sources, the house at 7 Rynek Street had a very interesting Renaissance decoration, reconstructed in 1900 and recently transformed. Gothic-Renaissance forms are also found in the outbuilding walls at Głęboka and Kopernika streets. On the brick walls, there is the division of shallow blind arches, ending in segmental arches and flat lesenes dividing the smooth surfaces of the walls.
Among the most important buildings in the city at that time were the castle (now the palace), the town hall, the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Chapel and Hospital of the Holy Spirit, the Chapel and Hospital of St. George, the Chapel and Hospital of St. Gertrude, the mills, the mint, and the brickworks.
From Baroque to Neoclassicism
The oldest view of the town is featured on the vignette of the map of the Duchy of Pomerania by E. Lubinus from 1618, showing the panorama of Trzebiatów from the southeast. The dense town buildings surrounded by defensive walls, with the Kaszana Tower and the Gryficka, Kołobrzeska gates and their foregates, are visible. The city moat, central canal, and the Rega river are also marked, as well as three bridges.
Significant changes in the method of building houses occurred at the end of the 17th century when construction work in the city intensified. This was due to the destruction caused by the siege of the town and fires during the Thirty Years' War (1618–1648). Pomeranian towns, including Trzebiatów, had to endure a real plague of fires. This was reflected in the decree issued by Bogislaw XIV in 1634, ordering the construction of firewalls between buildings. In 1679, another major fire destroyed much of the town's buildings, including the town hall, monastery, and the eastern frontage of buildings along the market square (the first town hall in Trzebiatów had been built in the 15th century). The castle and several previously rebuilt houses were also destroyed. In the 1660s, renovation work was undertaken, evidenced by the opening of the "Pod Orłem" pharmacy in 1668. Around 1680, the reconstruction of the town hall began. It was designed on a rectangular plan with a courtyard in the center. A small tower with a baroque roof and a clock was placed on the roof of the building. In 1691, the reconstruction of the house at 5 Rynek Street, which housed a pharmacy (documented as early as 1596), began.
At the end of the 17th century, there were likely significant changes to the city's urban planning. The layout of plots was altered in areas where the destruction of Trzebiatów's buildings had been greatest. The highest concentration of plots was found on the eastern side of the church and along the northern stretch of the defensive walls. However, the plots along the market square remained unchanged. This is evidenced by the preserved original form of the basement walls (front and dividing walls).
According to the cadastral map of 1730, Trzebiatów had about 480 plots in the first quarter of the 18th century, numbered consecutively from 1 to 480. Only a few houses were located on plots wider than 10 m². These sources also provide information about the town's bridges. In total, there were four: one across the Rega river at the end of Głęboka Street, another across Młynówka and Rega towards the Kołobrzeska Suburb, and another one through the swamps (St. Georgen-Teich) in the area of St. George's Chapel in that suburb. According to data from 1740, Trzebiatów had a population of 2,738 people, living in around 300 houses. The rebuilding of the town made use of surviving fragments of basement walls, introducing various savings methods. The dividing walls, outbuildings, and fragments of façades were left, with the shapes of openings and especially the gables being altered, changing from triangular or stepped gables to volute-shaped ones.
The forms of windows, plastering, and façade colors were also changed. According to Z. Radacki, during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the principle was the uniform color application of architectural details and separate backgrounds for façades. The elements of the details could be darker or lighter than the background. Renaissance townhouses were painted in vivid (intense) colors, while Baroque ones had calmer color tones.
The usable areas were increased by constructing new basements, dug underground, new courtyards, and extensions to the walls of existing basements (e.g., the house at 5 Rynek Street). Almost all basements were covered with barrel and tunnel vaults made of brick and plastered. Through expansion, the layout of interiors changed. In many houses, the hall was removed. It was divided by ceilings into two levels. Narrow, cross-cut communication paths with stairs in the central parts of buildings remained on the ground floors. Right next to the stairs were the so-called "black kitchens", small and unlit rooms with large hearths. The remaining parts of the interiors were usually divided into two sections, each containing one or more rooms.
As in the previous era, the façades of the houses on the market square were built from brick. The rear façades, partition walls, and walls of the annexes were mostly built in timber-frame construction, filled with clay. According to sources from 1720, most of Trzebiatów's buildings were constructed in timber-frame construction, but all houses were to be covered with ceramic roofing tiles by 1743. Thatched roofs were still common on the outskirts for a long time.
In 1747, another fire destroyed part of the buildings within the walls. In 1761, several houses were damaged by Russian troops due to artillery fire during the Seven Years' War. These losses were quickly recovered because the city's economic condition in the second half of the 18th century was much better than in earlier years. During this period, the city also began eliminating moats and city fortifications, transforming them into gardens. The city continued to expand its suburbs, allocating new land for plots. In the Old Town, the buildings became much denser within the plots, creating courtyard-wells. From this point on, there was a growth in population and, consequently, in the number of houses.
Houses built from scratch in the 18th century generally had from 4 to 5 axes on the façade. They were symmetrically built, with an entrance on the central axis and two windows on either side of the entrance. They were usually oriented with the gable end facing the street. They were covered with gambrel or gabled roofs. The decoration of the façades was limited to bands, shallowly profiled cornices, window and door surrounds with keys. Entrances and windows often had basket arch cutouts. Examples of preserved decorative elements can be found in houses at 18, 25, 28, 30 Rynek Street, and in houses no. from 1 to 2 on Krótka Street. Most of them were rebuilt in the 19th century, with the ground floors altered by breaking openings in the walls and creating shop windows, which led to changes in the interior appearance, shifting halls, and walls.