Pielgrzymów is a village located in southwestern

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 ...

, within

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

, Opole Voivodeship, near the border with the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It lies approximately west of

Głubczyce Głubczyce ( cs, Hlubčice or sparsely ''Glubčice'', german: Leobschütz, Silesian German: ''Lischwitz'') is a town in Opole Voivodeship in southern Poland, near the border with the Czech Republic. It is the administrative seat of Głubczyce Co ...

and south 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 ...

History

The present-day Polish village Pielgrzymów and the present-day Czech former village

Pelhřimovy Pelhřimovy (german: Mährisch Pilgersdorf) is a former village near Slezské Rudoltice, Bruntál District, Czech Republic. It is located in the southeastern part of the Zlatohorská Highlands along the stream Wielki Potok (also Potok Grozowy or T ...

, directly across the Czech side of the border, were once a single village. After the Silesian Wars, the newly drawn border divided the village in two. The division continued through the Communist era of 1945–1989, and the border was not easily crossed until the two countries joined the

Schengen Area The Schengen Area ( , ) is an area comprising 27 European countries that have officially abolished all passport and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Being an element within the wider area of freedom, security and j ...

in 2007. This village partition led to an incident in 2020 during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, when the Polish Army entered some parts of the Czech village as a result of a misunderstanding. They "occupied" parts of the village for two weeks. During this time, several Czech citizens were unable to access the area, and the dilapidated chapel located some 30 meters behind the border.

References

Villages in Głubczyce County Czech Republic–Poland border crossings {{Głubczyce-geo-stub