Święta Katarzyna (, , ), , is a village in Gmina Siechnice,

Wrocław County __NOTOC__ Wrocław County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed ...

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship (, ) in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. It covers an area of and has a total population of 2,899,986. It is one of the wealthiest ...

, in south-western Poland. Before 1 January 2010, the district of Gmina Siechnice was called ''Gmina Święta Katarzyna'', and Święta Katarzyna was its seat. (This was one of only two cases in Poland where a gmina contained a town but had its administrative seat in a village; the remaining one is

Gmina Nowe Skalmierzyce __NOTOC__ Gmina Nowe Skalmierzyce is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Ostrów Wielkopolski County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. In 1999 the administrative seat of the gmina was moved from the town of Nowe Sk ...

.) The village had a population of 1,872 in 2006, rising to 2258 in 2015. It lies approximately south-east of the regional capital

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

. It first appears in written records in 1257 as Santa Katherine. Buildings of interest include the fortified church of Saint Catherine, which dates to at least 1257, and has been rebuilt on several occasions, including in 1720 and after the

Second World War 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 ...

. The church contains a picture of the Madonna of Częstochowa, and is considered a

Marian shrine A shrine to the Virgin Mary, or Marian shrine, is a shrine marking an Marian apparitions, apparition or other miracle ascribed to the Blessed Virgin Mary, or a site on which is centered a historically strong Blessed Virgin Mary, Marian devotion ...

. The

eastern bypass runs through Święta Katarzyna, improving the village's transport links with the city.

References

{{Gmina Siechnice Villages in Wrocław County Shrines to the Virgin Mary