Krasnogruda 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 Sejny
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Gmina Sejny, is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Sejny County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, on the Lithuanian border. Its seat is the town of Sejny, although the town is not part of the territory of the gm ...
, within
Sejny County
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Sejny County ( pl, powiat sejneński) a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, in the extreme north-east of Poland, on the border with Lithuania and Belarus. It came into being on Januar ...
,
Podlaskie Voivodeship
Podlaskie Voivodeship or Podlasie Province ( pl, Województwo podlaskie, ) is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. The name of the province and its territory correspond to the historic region of Podlachia. The capital and largest cit ...
, in north-eastern
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 ...
, close to
the border with
Lithuania
Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...
.
History
The first mention of the Krasnogruda manor and estate (the original name was Krasnyhrud) dates back to 1676. The early history of the estate is not exactly known, more is known since 1785, when the Krasnogruda estate (consisting of the Krasnogruda farm and the villages of Żegary, Gawieniańce and Bierżyn) was purchased by the Eysymonts. Their first owner in the family was Maciej Tadeusz Eysymont, incl. founder of the church in Żegary.
At the end of the 19th century, the estate had 4 houses and 38 residents. The Krasnogruda estate consisted of the farms Krasnogruda and Wereszczeńszczyzna. It covered 1,815 morgens.
In 1929, the estate covered 414 acres. The owner was Bronisław Kunat (according to other sources it was named Kunatte).
The history of the manor and land ownership in the period from the end of the 18th century to the Second World War is closely related to the landed gentry families of Eysymont and Kunatów. The first owner of Krasnogruda from the Kunat family, from which Czesław Miłosz's mother Weronika came, was Teofil, followed by his son Bronisław Kunat. In the interwar period, the last heirs of Krasnogruda, sisters Gabriel Lipska née Kunat (1888–1962) and Janina Niementowska née Kunat (1898–1977) ran a holiday guesthouse at the manor. During the Second World War the property was taken over by the German authorities. After the war, as a result of the decree of the
Polish Committee of National Liberation
The Polish Committee of National Liberation (Polish: ''Polski Komitet Wyzwolenia Narodowego'', ''PKWN''), also known as the Lublin Committee, was an executive governing authority established by the Soviet-backed communists in Poland at the lat ...
of September 6, 1944 on the land reform, the manor and land (then with an area of 344.5 ha) ceased to be private property, and the owners were forced to leave it. The non-parceled part, ie 154.5 ha, was taken over by the state. After the war, the user of Krasnogruda was first Aleksander Czyrowski, and then the District Board of State Forests, the Pomorze Forest District. The families of forest inspectorates lived in the manor. By the will of Czesław and Andrzej Miłosz and Janina and Andrzej Jurewicz - the last heirs of Krasnogruda, the Krasnogruda manor and the park were in 2002 taken over by the "Pogranicze" Foundation, which after revitalization is the seat of the International Center for Dialogue.
Zbigniew Fałtynowicz: Historia Dworu (pol.). Ośrodek „Pogranicze”.
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References
Krasnogruda
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