Olchowiec 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 Dukla __NOTOC__ Gmina Dukla is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Krosno County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-eastern Poland, on the Slovak border. Its seat is the town of Dukla, which lies approximately south of Krosno and south ...

, within Krosno County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in south-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

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

. It lies approximately south-west of

Dukla Dukla is a town and an eponymous municipality in southeastern Poland, in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 2,017. The total area of the commune is . Dukla belongs to Lesser Poland, and until the P ...

, south-west of

Krosno Krosno (in full ''The Royal Free City of Krosno'', pl, Królewskie Wolne Miasto Krosno) is a historical town and Krosno County, county in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, in southeastern Poland. The estimated population of the town is 47,140 inha ...

, and south-west of the regional capital Rzeszów. Prior to World War II, this village was populated primarily, if not entirely, by Lemkos. During the

Battle of the Dukla Pass The Battle of the Dukla Pass, also known as the Dukla, Carpatho–Dukla, Rzeszów–Dukla, or Dukla–Prešov offensive, was the battle for control over the Dukla Pass on the border between Poland and Slovakia on the Eastern Front of World ...

in September–October, 1944, the village was destroyed by military operations. In the ethnic cleansing of the Lemkos by the Communist government of Poland in Operation Vistula in 1947, Olchowiec was one of a very small number of Lemko villages - perhaps only two, the other being Komańcza - from which the Lemko population was not deported to northern or western Poland.Rieger, Janusz A. "The Lemkos (Rusyns) in Poland." In Sven Gustavsson and Harald Runblom, eds. Language, Minority, Migration. Uppsala: Uppsala University Centre for Multiethnic Research, 1995, pp. 134-140. The Kermesz Łemkowski, an annual festival of Lemko culture is held in the village.

References

Olchowiec {{Krosno-geo-stub