Bobrowniki 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 Ryki __NOTOC__ Gmina Ryki is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Ryki County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. Its seat is the town of Ryki, which lies approximately north-west of the regional capital Lublin. The gmina covers an ar ...

, within

Ryki County __NOTOC__ Ryki County ( pl, powiat rycki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland. It was established on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed ...

, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It lies in northeastern corner of historic

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...

, approximately south of Ryki and north-west of the regional capital

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

. The village has a population of 610, and was officially a town from 1485 to 1869. The history of Bobrowniki dates back to the early years of the Kingdom of Poland, when this area was under authority of a

castellan A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...

from Sieciechow. At that time, the nearby

Wieprz The Wieprz (, ; ua, Вепр, Vepr) is a river in central-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Vistula. It is the country's ninth longest river, with a total length of 349 km and a catchment area of 10,497 km2, all within Poland. Its cour ...

river was abundant with Eurasian beavers. These animals were regarded as royal property because of their precious furs and were protected from hunting by royal officials, known as bobrownicy (hence the name of the village). The first documented mention of Bobrowniki comes from 1375, when it was located near the eastern border of Poland. The village was frequently destroyed in the raids of the

Lithuanians Lithuanians ( lt, lietuviai) are a Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another million or two make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the United States, Uni ...

, Yotvingians,

Tatars The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

and Rusyns. This ended in the late 14th century, when, after the Union of Krewo, the raids ended, and in the second half of the 15th century, Stanislaw Tarlo, the owner of Bobrowniki, managed to convince King

Kazimierz Jagiellonczyk Casimir IV (in full Casimir IV Andrew Jagiellon; pl, Kazimierz IV Andrzej Jagiellończyk ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447, until his death. He was one of the ...

to grant

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (german: Magdeburger Recht; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within ...

to the village. It happened on July 24, 1485. Bobrowniki remained a small town, whose population reached its maximum in c. 1660, when it was almost 2,000. After that, Bobrowniki declined, and its population was decimated by

cholera Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...

(1780–85), when 1,600 died. After the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

Bobrowniki, which had for centuries belonged to

Sandomierz Voivodeship Sandomierz Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo Sandomierskie, la, Palatinatus Sandomirensis) was a unit of administration and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. It was part of the Lesser Poland ...

, was annexed by the Habsburg Empire, and in 1815 – 1915 it belonged to Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

. In 1840, Russian authorities built a fortress called Ivangorod, which later was renamed into

Dęblin Dęblin is a town at the confluence of Vistula and Wieprz rivers, in Lublin Voivodeship, Poland. Dęblin is the part of the agglomeration with adjacent towns of Ryki and Puławy, which altogether has over 100 000 inhabitants. The population of ...

. Around the fortress a new town quickly emerged, together with an important railroad hub. Bobrowniki declined even further, finally losing its town charter after the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

. The village now has a

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

church, and two cemeteries – Roman Catholic and Jewish, as well as a monument dedicated to the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...

References

{{coord, 51, 32, 54, N, 21, 55, 56, E, region:PL_type:city, display=title

Bobrowniki Bobrowniki (; german: Beberen) is a village in Lipno County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Bobrowniki. It lies approximately south-west of Lipno an ...