Stogi is a village founded in 1562 in the area of Żuławy Wielkie, which only 3 years later was leased to Dutch settlers, the Mennonites.
Mennonites are adherents of a religious movement, a faction of Anabaptism, which was founded in the Netherlands in the 16th Century. In the middle of the 16th Century Mennonites were persecuted, which compelled them to emigrate to other European countries.
During that time, Poland was one of the most tolerant countries in Europe, which is why the Mennonites were so eager to settle here. They mostly inhabited the area of Żuławy, where with the dry and fertile soil they occupied themselves with farming, building water channels and Dutch windmills.
Mennonite cemetery in Stogi Malborskie, photo: Pomorskie Travel
In 1820 the village was inhabited by 301 people, 202 of which were of the Mennonite religion. Moreover, in the second half of 19th Century Stogi was inhabited by 154 Catholics and Evangelists and also 176 Mennonites. A prayer house was erected in the village due to the large number of Dutch settlers. A cemetery enveloping 2.6 hectares, founded around the middle of the 18th Century, has survived to this day.
It is one of the most beautiful Mennonite cemeteries in Żuławy, which contains 260 single, double and children grave borders and also 78 steles characteristic of the Mennonite culture and others in the form of crosses, tablets and tombs.
When walking through the cemetery it is worth noticing the cippus of Abraham Regier, the elder of the commune, which is crowned with an urn. The cippus is located on the right side near the entrance. Most of the steles gathered here are made with a triangular front, richly ornamented with Christian symbols, which refer to faith, resurrection and eternal life, and also plant elements.
To this day, from inscriptions placed on the tablets, we can find out much information about the dead and the functions they performed when they were alive, where they lived and how numerous were their families. On the back of the steles there is a quotation from the Bible or a rhymed epitaph.
At the end of the cemetery there are 5 steles from the liquidated cemetery in Lasowice Wielkie.
Cippus is a gravestone in the form of a cuboid, often crowned with a vase or an urn, and sometimes with a tall, tapered obelisk.
