Lutheran Church in Sosnowiec-Pogoń

The Evangelical Augsburg Church of St John the Evangelist stands on Żeromskiego Street in the Pogoń district of Sosnowiec. It is a brick church with a clock tower, which grew out of the works chapel of Heinrich Dietel's textile factory. It stands opposite the former palace of the manufacturer, in the building line of the former factory frontage.

The manufacturer and his church

Dietel came to Sosnowice from Saxony in 1878, and a year later he started a worsted wool spinning mill here, the only one of its kind in the Russian Empire. He was an active member of the parish council in Dąbrowa Górnicza and the initiator of the church's construction. The first services were held in the technical school building that he had funded, and then in a room in the factory. The prayer house was consecrated on 4 September 1886.

In 1888 the building was rebuilt to a design by Ignatz Grünfeld of Katowice, and a tower was added to a design by Waligórski. Stained-glass windows by Richard Schlein of Zittau appeared in the windows, and in the altar a painting of the blessing Christ, painted in 1888 in Wrocław. The tower was raised in 1909-1910, and the church then took on an eclectic form with Neo-Baroque elements. In 1938-1940 the church was used jointly with the Lutherans by an Orthodox community.

The building and interior

The single-nave brick body has a broken (mansard-type) roof. The tower with clocks, covered with a broken helm roof with a cross, also serves as a belfry, and the door to the porch opens from its side onto the street. The interior has preserved a historic altar, a pulpit, a font and a wooden choir loft with a six-stop organ from the end of the 19th century, made by the firm of Schlag und Söhne of Świdnica.

The church was entered in the heritage register in 1997. A plaque on the wall with the date 8 November 1880 actually concerns the construction of the factory hall and wrongly suggests that the church was built in the mid-1890s. The true foundation document from 1888 was found in 2003 in the ball under the cross of the tower during its renovation.

Nearby

Right next to it begins Dietel Park, and not far away stands Sielec Castle.

Practical information

• Address: ul. Stefana Żeromskiego 1A, Sosnowiec-Pogoń.
• The church is an active place of worship of the Evangelical Augsburg parish of St John. You can see it before and after a service, and at other times by arrangement with the parish administration.
• Current information is given on the parish website luteranie.pl/sosnowiec.