HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Raba Wyżna is a
village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
in
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...
, situated in
Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). Its capital and largest city is Kraków. The province's name recalls the traditional name of a h ...
,
Nowy Targ County Nowy Targ County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland, on the Slovak border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government refor ...
. It is a seat of Raba Wyżna Commune. As of 2006, the village had 4116 inhabitants. Raba Wyżna is also the birthplace of
Stanisław Dziwisz Stanisław Jan Dziwisz (; born 27 April 1939) is a Polish Catholic prelate who served as Archbishop of Kraków from 2005 to 2016. He was created a cardinal in 2006. He was a long-time and influential aide to Pope John Paul II, a friend of Pope ...
, trusted secretary to
Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...
.


History


1500s–1800s

Settlement began at what is now Raba Wyżna in the 1550s. According to local records, in the year 1581 the village consisted of 43 farms. The first church in Raba Wyżna was a small, wooden church called the church of St. Stanisław Bishop and Martyr, a Catholic church built in 1581. Though the Raba Wyżna church was initially part of the Rabka parish, by 1618 Raba Wyżna became its own parish. In 1668 a new church was built in the village and was consecrated by Bishop Mikołaj Oborski of
Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...
. In 1846-1847 the village and surrounding areas suffered a typhus outbreak and a great famine due to crop failure. Over 1/3 of the village inhabitants died. According to the 1847 record books, in Raba Wyżna alone 455 people died, and 877 remained alive in the parish. In the nearby village of
Spytkowice Spytkowice is a village in Wadowice County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Spytkowice. It lies approximately north of Wadowice and west of the regional capital ...
511 people died that same year. The number of corpses overwhelmed the church, and a new cemetery was built out of necessity in September 1847.


First and Second World Wars

The first world war touched the village of Raba Wyzna, and the Austrian army pillaged the town and stole the church bell.
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
brought more chaos to the village, causing some local inhabitants to leave their homes. On September 2, 1939 a battle between the Germans and Polish armies swept through the town, resulting in 40 homes being burnt to the ground and many civilians killed. The local church was plundered, books were burned, and the church bells were stolen by the German army. The day after the battle, a group of local men on their way to church were kidnapped by the German army and transported to the
Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a German Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 f ...
in
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
. The German army occupied the town from 1939 until 1945. In 1942 the church was temporarily closed due to a
dysentery Dysentery ( , ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications may include dehyd ...
outbreak in the town. In 1945, the German occupation had ended and the rebuilding of the town began. In 1947 a new church bell were purchased, weighing 300 kg. In 1968 two more bells were purchased for the church, affectionately called "Stanislaw" and "Jozef."


External links


Official site of Raba WyżnaRaba Wyżna parish websiteScanned Raba Wyżna church records, made available by the Polish Genealogical SocietySearchable index of Raba Wyżna church records


References

Villages in Nowy Targ County {{LesserPoland-geo-stub it:Raba Wyżna