| Year: | 2025 |
| Field: | Field of Theological Sciences |
| Discipline: | theological sciences |
| Keywords: | archival inventory Gorzow (Gorzów) administration Koszalin-Kolobrzeg (Kołobrzeg) diocese |
| Authors: |
Tadeusz
Ceynowa
Uniwersytet Szczeciński |
Electronic version of the publication available under CC BY-SA 4.0 license after 12 months from the date of launch: April 2025
Archival inventory of the Curia of the Apostolic Administration in Gorzow (Gorzów) Wielkopolski 1945–1972. The area of the Koszalin-Kolobrzeg (Kołobrzeg) diocese
By the order of the great powers, Poland’s borders changed significantly after the end of World War II. As compensation for the territories lost in the east to the Soviet Union, it received the territories of the Third Reich on the Oder and the Baltic Sea. Primate August Hlond, by virtue of papal authority, established apostolic administrations on these lands on August 15, 1945. The largest of them, the Apostolic Administration of Kamien (Kamień), Lubusz and the Pila (Piła) Prelature, occupied about 15% of the territory of the Polish state. In 1972, Pope Paul VI established a permanent church organization in the lands granted to Poland after 1945 with the papal bull Episcoporum Poloniae coetus. Three dioceses were created from the Gorzow (Gorzów) Church: Gorzow (Gorzów), Szczecin-Kamien (Kamień) and Koszalin-Kolobrzeg (Kołobrzeg). By the Pope’s decision, the archival documentation concerning the territories of the individual dioceses had to be transferred to the new rulers. The presented inventory illustrates the archives transferred from Gorzow (Gorzów) to Koszalin in the years 1972–1973. So far little used by researchers, they can be used by those interested in a full study of the post-war history in the changing area of the Koszalin-Kolobrzeg (Kołobrzeg) diocese.