Head downhill from the city centre to explore Szczecin’s 12th-century cathedral, partially destroyed by Red Army shells in 1945 and reconstructed in 1972. It’s the early 1970s renovation you’ll notice first, an incongruously modern facade more reminiscent of a derelict factory than a place of worship. As a foreigner you’re certain to be cherry-picked to shell out the 8zł admission, then proceed to the nave where a forest of red-brick columns provides perspective to an interior lacking atmosphere.
On the right, almost at the end of the nave, a plaque remembering those who perished in the 2010 Smolensk air disaster sits below another to the Katyń victims they were on their way to honour. Otherwise, possibly the world’s tiniest crypt and some impressive stained glass are the only other distractions, along with the tower where a lift winches you up to striking views of the river.
