Klebark Wielki () is a village in the administrative district of

Gmina Purda __NOTOC__ Gmina Purda is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Olsztyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the village of Purda, which lies approximately south-east of the regional capital Olsztyn. The gmi ...

, within Olsztyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately north-west of

Purda Pardah or purdah (from Hindi-Urdu , , meaning "curtain") is a religious and social practice of female seclusion prevalent among some Muslim and Hindu communities. It takes two forms: physical segregation of the sexes and the requirement that wom ...

and south-east of the regional capital Olsztyn. It is located in Warmia. Klebark Wielki's landmark is the Holy Cross church. There's also an Armenian

khachkar A ''khachkar'', also known as a ''khatchkar'' or Armenian cross-stone ( hy, խաչքար, , խաչ xačʿ "cross" + քար kʿar "stone") is a carved, memorial stele bearing a cross, and often with additional motifs such as rosettes, in ...

commemorating the Armenian genocide.

History

The village of Klebark dates back to the 14th century and was initially populated with

Baltic Prussians Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians (Old Prussian: ''prūsai''; german: Pruzzen or ''Prußen''; la, Pruteni; lv, prūši; lt, prūsai; pl, Prusowie; csb, Prësowié) were an indigenous tribe among the Baltic peoples that in ...

and by

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

since the late 14th century. Historia Klebarka The first Catholic church was built in the early 15th century. The village was devastated by the Teutonic Knights during the Thirteen Years' War in 1455. From 1464 it was part of the Polish Crown. After the destruction and depopulation of the village during the last

Polish–Teutonic War (1519–1521) The Polish–Teutonic War of 1519–1521 (german: Reiterkrieg, lit=Knight's War, pl, Wojna pruska, lit=Prussian War) was fought between the Kingdom of Poland and the Teutonic Knights, ending with the Compromise of Thorn in April 1521. Four yea ...

, Nicolaus Copernicus, who resided in nearby Olsztyn, led a repopulation campaign, attracting Polish settlers from other places. Then the village was organized in two parts: Klebark Wielki and Klebark Mały. The division of the village was sanctioned by the Warmian chapter in 1587 and it has been preserved to this day. Klebark Wielki - Shrine 01

Again destroyed and depopulated during the

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

in 1656, the village was soon again repopulated with Polish settlers. 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 ...

it fell to Prussia. The village was a strong center of Polish resistance to attempts at

Germanisation Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationa ...

, forced by the Prussian and later German administration. In 1863, local priest Juliusz Grzymała hid Polish insurgents in the parish, from 1872 the parish brought Polish newspapers to the village. In 1881 a Polish library was created, which was to be a counterweight to the official German school. Near the end of World War II, in January 1945 Soviet soldiers tortured and murdered the local Polish parish priest Paweł Chmielewski. After the war Klebark Wielki was reintegrated with Poland.

Notable people

* (1852–1894), Polish teacher, publicist, activist, founder of the '' Gazeta Olsztyńska'' newspaper, was born in the village

References

External links

Kreisgmeinschaft Allenstein-LandGroß Kleeberg

Klebark Wielki Klebark Wielki () is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Purda, within Olsztyn County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Purda, Poland, Purda and south-east of the regional capital ...

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