Floorplan

To date nothing has been found of the Nikolaikirche first mentioned in connection with a bell in 1263. However, fragments of masonry have survived in the triumphal arch pillars between what is today the church choir and main building which, together with the remains of an external plinth found under the south-eastern pillar, have been dated to the last third of the 13th century. The single nave choir which can be reconstructed with these findings forms part of that church which acquired the rank of provost church in the decades either side of 1300 as a result of being conferred with ecclesiastical and legal authority. There is mention of a provost as early as 1294, and from 1308 onwards he discharges extensive ecclesiastical court powers on behalf of the bishop of Kammin. The special status achieved by this was extended further in the course of the 14th Century and at the

same time resulted in large-scale building work. Numerous reports of purchases for the chapels, altar and dated to the 1360s have been handed down to posterity. At that time Greifswald grew to become the second largest town in the Duchy of Pomerania after Stralsund. Five Hanseatic League parliaments were held in Greifswald between the years of 1310 and 1362 alone. A hall church with five bays and three aisles subdivided by octagonal rows of piers was constructed to the west of the old choir, at the western end of which work was begun at the same time on the cellar with horizontal glazed header beams. The new development of buttresses staggered on both sides of the walls applied in southern Germany as well as in the Brandenburg Marches to parish churches in towns was adopted, making it possible to site chapels of approximately the same size in the side aisles.

Exposed hexagonal pillar in the north-western aisle

The elevation carried out on the main hall building was also designed to be used for a new choir to be built, this was only to be incorporated to a slight extent by the main hall. However it was built in about 1385 with a basilican cross section as a five-bay building with the nave terminating in a straight wall to the east towering up high to which the eastern ends of the aisles are brought at an angle. One reason for the change of plan was presumably the intention to lend the Greifswald provost church the appropriate facilities for establishing a collegiate chapter or cathedral chapter. As early as 1395 once the bulk of the choir designated on several occasions as novo choro in written sources dating from 1411 may have been completed, are the clerics at St. Nikolai were allowed to wear special headwear, the beret, otherwise generally reserved for founders of cathedrals and collegiate churches.

At the beginning of the 15th century the main building was also converted to take the form of a basilica. Some of the arcades were added to and encased, and the masonry taken up as high as the choir clerestory. Then came the vaulting of the choir and main building, the latter with detailed stellar vaults on the side aisles. However, the St. Nikolai church did not achieve the status of a collegiate church, in spite of its foundation as a place of worship for resident priests in about 1410 / 20 and efforts made to the papal curia. On the other hand with the erection of the second and third storey of the tower, the present day profile of the church had largely been completed.

Foundation of collegial foundation and university – Completion of construction work on the church