Oleśnica is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

Staszów County __NOTOC__ Staszów County ( pl, powiat staszowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, south-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local g ...

Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship The Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, also known as the Świętokrzyskie Province, and the Holy Cross Voivodeship ( pl, województwo świętokrzyskie ) is a voivodeship (province) of Poland situated in southeastern part of the country, in the histo ...

, in south-central Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

(administrative district) called Gmina Oleśnica. It lies in 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-west of Staszów and south-east of the regional capital

Kielce Kielce (, yi, קעלץ, Keltz) is a city in southern Poland, and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the bank ...

. The village used to be a town from 1470 to 1869. During the reign of King

Kazimierz Wielki Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He ...

, Oleśnica was the seat of a Roman Catholic parish, which covered the area of 49 square kilometers. The village furthermore served as main residence of the

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Great B ...

Oleśnicki family (later, it belonged to the Zborowski family and the

Lubomirski family The House of Lubomirski is a Polish princely family. The Lubomirski family's coat of arms is the Drużyna coat of arms, which is similar to the Szreniawa coat of arms but without a cross. Origin and the coat of arms The Lubomirski fam ...

). The father of Cardinal Zbigniew Oleśnicki was born here. Oleśnica received

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 ...

in the year 1470, and during the

Polish Golden Age The Polish Golden Age was the Renaissance period in Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, roughly corresponding to the period of rule of the King Sigismund I the Old and his son, Sigismund II Augustus, the last of the Jagiellonian Dynasty monar ...

, it was a small town, with 12 artisans. Furthermore, since the mid-16th century, it was a local center of the

Protestant Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

, with a

Calvinist Calvinism (also called the Reformed Tradition, Reformed Protestantism, Reformed Christianity, or simply Reformed) is a major branch of Protestantism that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice set down by John Ca ...

prayer house, opened here in 1563 by Mikolaj Zborowski. The population of the town remained small – in 1673, it was only 184. Oleśnica was completely destroyed in the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

, and 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 briefly belonged to the

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy (german: Habsburgermonarchie, ), also known as the Danubian monarchy (german: Donaumonarchie, ), or Habsburg Empire (german: Habsburgerreich, ), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities ...

, to be annexed in 1815 by the 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 ...

, where it remained until 1915. Due to proximity of the tightly locked Austrian – Russian border, Oleśnica's development was halted, and finally, 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 ...

, it lost the town charter. Several notable people were born in or connected with Oleśnica. Among them were Dobieslaw Oleśnicki, the

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 ...

Wojnicz Wojnicz () is an ancient historic town in Tarnów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship. In the early medieval period of the Polish state, it became one of the most important centres in the province of Lesser Poland, as part of the system of Dunajec ri ...

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 ...

and

Sandomierz Sandomierz (pronounced: ; la, Sandomiria) is a historic town in south-eastern Poland with 23,863 inhabitants (as of 2017), situated on the Vistula River in the Sandomierz Basin. It has been part of Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship (Holy Cross Provi ...

, the

starosta The starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', german: link=no, Starost, Hauptmann) is a term of Slavic origin denoting a community elder whose role was to administer the assets of a clan or family estates. Th ...

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, who participated in the

Battle of Grunwald The Battle of Grunwald, Battle of Žalgiris or First Battle of Tannenberg was fought on 15 July 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. The alliance of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, led respec ...

and commanded the siege of the

Malbork Castle The Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork ( pl, Zamek w Malborku; german: Ordensburg Marienburg) is a 13th-century Teutonic castle and fortress located near the town of Malbork, Poland. It is the largest castle in the world measured by land ...

in 1410, and Cardinal

Zbigniew Olesnicki Zbigniew () is a Polish masculine given name, originally Zbygniew . This West Slavic name is derived from the Polish elements ''Zby-'' (from ''zbyć, zbyć się, or pozbyć się'', meaning "to dispel", "to get rid of") and ''gniew'', meaning "ang ...

, the Bishop of Krakow in 1423–1455, as well as many members of the Zborowski family.

Demography

According to the 2002 Poland census, there were 1,961 people residing in Oleśnica village, of whom 50.2% were male and 49.8% were female. In the village, the population was spread out, with 28.5% under the age of 18, 38.6% from 18 to 44, 17% from 45 to 64, and 16% who were 65 years of age or older.

ImageSize = width:350 height:220 PlotArea = left:70 right:15 top:30 bottom:50 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = justify Colors = id:gray1 value:gray(0.9) id:blue1 value:rgb(0.2,0.7,0.8) legend:Male id:red1 value:rgb(1,0.5,0.5) legend:Female id:green1 value:rgb(0,1,0) Legend = orientation:horizontal top:220 left:150 TextData = pos:(163,20) textcolor:black fontsize:S text:Oleśnica in 2002 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:-197 till:197 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:197 start:-197 gridcolor:gray1 PlotData = bar:80+ color:blue1 width:1 from:-14 till:0 width:12 text:14 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:80+ color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:36 width:12 text:36 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:70–79 color:blue1 width:1 from:-46 till:0 width:12 text:46 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:70–79 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:85 width:12 text:85 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:60–69 color:blue1 width:1 from:-65 till:0 width:12 text:65 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:60–69 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:97 width:12 text:97 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:50–59 color:blue1 width:1 from:-94 till:0 width:12 text:94 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:50–59 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:85 width:12 text:85 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:40–49 color:blue1 width:1 from:-147 till:0 width:12 text:147 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:40–49 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:119 width:12 text:119 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:30–39 color:blue1 width:1 from:-151 till:0 width:12 text:151 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:30–39 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:153 width:12 text:153 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:20–29 color:blue1 width:1 from:-133 till:0 width:12 text:133 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:20–29 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:118 width:12 text:118 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:10–19 color:blue1 width:1 from:-196 till:0 width:12 text:196 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:10–19 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:157 width:12 text:157 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:0–9 color:blue1 width:1 from:-139 till:0 width:12 text:139 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:0–9 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:125 width:12 text:125 textcolor:black fontsize:8px

Figure 1. Population pyramid of village in 2002 — by age group and sex

References

{{Gmina Oleśnica, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Villages in Staszów County Lesser Poland Kielce Governorate Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939)