Krasiejów (german: Krascheow) 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 Ozimek __NOTOC__ Gmina Ozimek is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Opole County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the town of Ozimek, which lies approximately east of the regional capital Opole. The gmina covers ...

, within

Opole County __NOTOC__ Opole County ( pl, powiat opolski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reform ...

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship, or Opole Province ( pl, województwo opolskie ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Upper S ...

, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately east of

Ozimek Ozimek (german: Malapane; szl, Uoźimek) is a town in Opole County, Opole Voivodeship, Poland, with 8,657 inhabitants (2019). History Ozimek dates back to an early modern period, early modern settlement. It was named both ''Ozimek'' and ''Ma ...

and east of the regional capital

Opole Opole (; german: Oppeln ; szl, Ôpole) ; * Silesian: ** Silesian PLS alphabet: ''Ôpole'' ** Steuer's Silesian alphabet: ''Uopole'' * Silesian German: ''Uppeln'' * Czech: ''Opolí'' * Latin: ''Oppelia'', ''Oppolia'', ''Opulia'' is a city loc ...

. The village has a population of 2,050. Amphicoelias Krasiejow

Paleontological localities

Abundant skeletons of the Upper

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

tetrapod Tetrapods (; ) are four-limbed vertebrate animals constituting the superclass Tetrapoda (). It includes extant and extinct amphibians, sauropsids ( reptiles, including dinosaurs and therefore birds) and synapsids (pelycosaurs, extinct theraps ...

s (i.e., large

Temnospondyli Temnospondyli (from Greek τέμνειν, ''temnein'' 'to cut' and σπόνδυλος, ''spondylos'' 'vertebra') is a diverse order of small to giant tetrapods—often considered primitive amphibians—that flourished worldwide during the Carb ...

: ''

Metoposaurus ''Metoposaurus'' meaning "front lizard" is an extinct genus of stereospondyl temnospondyl amphibian, known from the Late Triassic of Germany, Italy, Poland, and Portugal. https://www.app.pan.pl/archive/published/app47/app47-535.pdf This mostly a ...

'' and ''

Cyclotosaurus ''Cyclotosaurus'' is an extinct genus of temnospondyl within the family Mastodonsauridae. It was of great size for an amphibian, had an elongated skull up to . Etymology The name means "round eared lizard" in Ancient Greek, derived from round ...

''; reptiles: ''

Paleorhinus ''Paleorhinus'' (Greek: ''"Old Nose"'') is an extinct genus of widespread basal (phylogenetics), basal phytosaur known from the Late Triassic (late Carnian stage). The genus was named in 1904 based on the type species ''Paleorhinus bransoni'', wh ...

'',

dinosauriformes Dinosauromorpha is a clade of avemetatarsalian archosaurs (reptiles closer to birds than to crocodilians) that includes the Dinosauria (dinosaurs) and some of their close relatives. It was originally defined to include dinosauriforms and lager ...

Silesaurus ''Silesaurus'' is a genus of silesaurid dinosauriform from the Late Triassic, of what is now Poland. Discovery Fossilized remains of ''Silesaurus'' have been found in the Keuper Claystone in Krasiejów near Opole, Silesia, Poland, which is al ...

'') were described from the pit. Two paleontological museums and large dinopark (so-called JuraPark) are at Krasiejów. Some microvertebrate fossils, fossil plants, bivalves, crustaceans and fish scales were also collected at the site.

History

The village was first mentioned in the 13th century, when it was part of

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented List of Polish monarchs, Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I of Poland, Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Poland during the Piast dynasty, Piasts' royal rule i ...

-ruled

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 ...

. Its name is of Polish origin, and comes from the

Old Polish The Old Polish language ( pl, język staropolski, staropolszczyzna) was a period in the history of the Polish language between the 10th and the 16th centuries. It was followed by the Middle Polish language. The sources for the study of the Old ...

words ''kraszenie'' or ''krasny''. Later on, the village was also part of Bohemia (Czechia),

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. After the restoration of independent Poland after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1918, the

Silesian Uprisings The Silesian Uprisings (german: Aufstände in Oberschlesien, Polenaufstände, links=no; pl, Powstania śląskie, links=no) were a series of three uprisings from August 1919 to July 1921 in Upper Silesia, which was part of the Weimar Republic ...

were fought in the area, with the aim of reintegrating the region with Poland, however, the village was assigned to Germany. There is a mass grave of Polish insurgents in the village. In 1936, the Germans changed the name to ''Schönhorst'' to erase traces of Polish origin. 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 the E799

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

subcamp of the Stalag VIII-B/344

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 Germany's defeat in the war, in 1945, the village became again part of Poland, and its historic name was restored.

References

* Dzik, J. and Sulej, T. 2007. A review of the early Late Triassic Krasiejów biota from Silesia, Poland. Palaeontologia Polonica 64, 3-27. Villages in Opole County {{OpoleCounty-geo-stub