Wierzchucino ) () is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Krokowa __NOTOC__ Gmina Krokowa ( csb, Krokòwa) is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the village of Krokowa, which lies approximately north-west of Puck, Poland, Puck and nort ...

, within

Puck County __NOTOC__ Puck County ( pl, powiat pucki, csb, pùcczi pòwiat) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern Poland, on the Baltic coast. The ''powiat'' of this name existed in the hist ...

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomorskie Region, or Pomerania Province (Polish: ''Województwo pomorskie'' ; ( Kashubian: ''Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò'' ), is a voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The ...

, in northern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. It lies approximately west of

Krokowa Krokowa ( csb, Krokòwa; formerly german: Krockow) is a village in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Krokowa. It lies approximately north-west of Puck and ...

, west of Puck, and north-west of the regional capital

Gdańsk Gdańsk ( , also ; ; csb, Gduńsk;Stefan Ramułt, ''Słownik języka pomorskiego, czyli kaszubskiego'', Kraków 1893, Gdańsk 2003, ISBN 83-87408-64-6. , Johann Georg Theodor Grässe, ''Orbis latinus oder Verzeichniss der lateinischen Benen ...

. It is located within the historic region of

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

. In 1257 Wierzchucino was granted by

Swietopelk II, Duke of Pomerania Swietopelk II, also Zwantepolc II or Swantopolk II, (1190/1200 – 11 January 1266), sometimes known as the Great ( pl, Świętopełk II Wielki; Kashubian: ''Swiãtopôłk II Wiôldżi''), was the ruling Duke of Pomerelia-Gdańsk from 1215 un ...

to the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

nunnery in

Żarnowiec Żarnowiec ( csb, Żarnówc, German ''Zarnowitz'') is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Krokowa, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies close to Żarnowieckie Lake, approximately west of Krokowa ...

, what was later confirmed in

by King of Poland

Przemysł II Przemysł II ( also given in English and Latin as ''Premyslas'' or ''Premislaus'' or in Polish as '; 14 October 1257 – 8 February 1296) was the Duke of Poznań from 1257–1279, of Greater Poland from 1279 to 1296, of Kraków from 1290 to 1291 ...

in 1295. In the early modern period (16th-18th centuries) the village had still been property of the nunnery of

. After the First Partition of Poland it was annexed by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

, and from 1871 it was also part of Germany. Administratively it belonged to the Province of Pomerania. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

the Germans operated a

labor camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

for prisoners of war from the

Stalag II-B Stalag II-B was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp situated west of the town of Hammerstein, Pomerania (now Czarne, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland) on the north side of the railway line. It housed Polish, French, Belgian, Serbian, Dutch ...

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

in the village. After the defeat of Nazi Germany in

, in 1945, the village became again part of Poland. There is a historic

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

Sacred Heart church in Wierzchucino, and a memorial to Polish-Kashubian activist .

References

Wierzchucino Wierzchucino ) () is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Krokowa, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately west of Krokowa, west of Puck, and north-west of the regional capital Gdańsk ...

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