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| The Vielist Church was quite a find.
We went to Vielist to ostensibly find any traces of the the Tessnow family
which would have been my mothers Great Grandmother. Something very
unique happened. We had stopped at the Vielist church to see if we could
see the inside. We could, by climbing up on the sc
scaffolding that is show on this picture. The walls of this church were about 4 feet thick. Back in the 13th century when this church was built, the churches were also the fortress where the local citizenry would run to the fortress and protect themselves. After we looked into the window, we headed further into the village of Vielist. A young man was walking down the road and we stopped to ask him, best we could in broken German and English if he knew any Tessnows in the area. He responded, "Tessnow, I Tessnow"! He took us to his home where we visited with his mother and sister. We then found out that this young man was the person who kept the keys to the church. He took us back to the church and showed us around. (see next picture) When these churches were built, it was often the money from a local baron who funded the church. These same wealthy people were often entombed in the church later and in this church this held true. Young Mr. Tessnow showed us the remains of the church benefactors who had been entombed there since the 1400's. |