Sompolno, Russian Poland
Sompolno succeeded Babiak as the major Evangelical Church serving the northern part of Russian Poland. As noted earlier, the Evangelical church was not established in Babiak until after my families had left for Volhynia in 1833. I might note that a major battle took place in the Polish uprising in the 1860's at Ignacewo only 6 miles from Sompolno. The Russian Army burned 300 of the Polish Revolutionaries alive in Ignacewo. The savageness of this uprising stimulated the migrations from this area to Volhynia in 1866. Click here for more about the area and why the Germans would want to leave for Volhynia.
Here in Sompolno we find a town with a nice market square and both a Catholic and Evangelical Church. Unfortunately my camera malfunctioned so I don't have a picture of the Evangelical Church. Luckily I have been rescued by Martin Schmidt g8orz03@gmail.com who took these pictures of the exterior of the church:
Martin was also able to find a local person to open up the church so he could take these pictures:
Here is the Catholic Church:
And pictures of the Market Plaza:
Here is a map showing Sompolno in the context of the several other early German settlements in Russian Poland:
Please send any queries to Bill Remus at
October 17, 2012