View of Three Circles Lodge building

New buildings and places appeared in Szczecin's landscape in the first half of the 19th century, which Szczecin inhabitants liked to visit and see. One such place was the garden and headquarters of the Masonic lodge Pod Trzema Cyrklami (Zu Drei Zirkeln), located on the site of today's Polish Theatre in Swarożyc Street. Freemasons were prominent in Szczecin's cultural life. Their ranks included eminent Szczeciners, such as the famous composer Karl Loewe (1796-1869), and their patrons were German princes, who were Freemasons. Until 1935, when the Nazi authorities banned freemasonry and confiscated its property, there were seven Masonic lodges in Szczecin, with seats in different parts of the city. One of the best known and oldest was the Zu Drei Zirkeln Masonic lodge, which was established in the 18th century under the influence of English freemasonry. It was famous for its charitable and cultural activities. The lodge bought part of the land in Swarożyc Street and built a new seat at the beginning of the 19th century, about 1828. Over time, the lodge members bought the adjacent land and transformed it into a park and a recreational place accessible to all residents. The lodge building was surrounded by romantic gardens, which could be admired along with the view of the Oder, harbour and castle from a unique viewing terrace. It was a favourite meeting place of Szczecin's social elite and one of the most attractive places for entertainment. The view of the Szczecin lodge building with a fragment of a park with gardens and a summer café was depicted in watercolour from 1897 by the Szczecin artist Clara Kettlitz (1833-1907). Born in Potsdam, she spent her adult life in Szczecin, and she was a singing teacher and a painter artistically active since 1859. She was Szczecin merchant's wife and lived in the now non-existent Lazurowa Street (Junkerstrasse).

Małgorzata Peszko