Stegna is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in Nowy Dwór Gdański County,

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship ( ; ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The voivodeship was established on January 1, 1999, out of the former voivodeships of Gdańsk Voivo ...

, in northern Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) called Gmina Stegna. It lies approximately north of

Nowy Dwór Gdański Nowy Dwor Gdanski (; ; formerly ) is a town in Poland on the Tuja river in the Żuławy Wiślane Żuławy Wiślane (plural from "żuława", meaning fen), in English known as the Vistula Fens, is the alluvial delta area of the river Vistula, in ...

and east of the regional capital

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

History

The first documents confirming the existence of a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

church in Stegna date back to the 14th century. According to sources from 1465, there was a Gothic church in Stegna. The settlement was a possession of the city of

, located in the

of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

. In 1609, the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

pastor Georg Klein built a small wooden

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

church, which burned down in 1676. Only the tower, organ, altar furnishings and a bell remained from the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

. On the site of the old

church began on March 25, 1681, the works on the construction of a new one under the direction of Peter Willer - architect, surveyor and mechanic of the city of

. The construction of the

baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

church, according to the chronicle, was very expensive (e.g. the carpenter Peter Kamrath received: 2000 guilders, 8 barrels of beer and 6 spruces. Andreas Bosche received 1150 guilders for building the tower and wood from the old tower that has been preserved). On November 29, 1681 - the first Sunday in Advent - preacher Martinus Krüger consecrated the church. On May 25, 1682, the construction of the choir was completed, and on June 15, 1683, the organ was expanded. The tower is a work by Bosche, the cross and the flag by Daniel Madler. The works were finally completed on November 17, 1683 - this year can be seen on the flag, which many researchers incorrectly interpret as the year the church was built. The new tower also has a bell from 1643, which survived the fire, which still chimes at 12 noon every day, and two larger ones - from 1732. The bell, over three hundred years old, bears an inscription in Latin: "Domine, da pacem in diebus nostris", which means: "Lord, give peace to our time." The village was annexed by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

in the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

in 1772, and from 1871 it formed part of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

. In 1919, it became part of the

Free City of Danzig The Free City of Danzig (; ) was a city-state under the protection and oversight of the League of Nations between 1920 and 1939, consisting of the Baltic Sea port of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland) and nearly 200 other small localities in the surrou ...

(Gdańsk), and during the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in 1939 it was occupied and annexed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

. In 1942, the Germans established a

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

subcamp of the

Stutthof concentration camp Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German-an ...

in the village. The church was taken away from the Lutheran Church in 1945 when the inhabitants were forced to flee westward and Stegna became again part of Poland after World War II.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Nowy Dwór Gdański County