Uście Solne 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 Szczurowa __NOTOC__ Gmina Szczurowa is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Brzesko County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the village of Szczurowa, which lies approximately north of Brzesko and east of the regional capita ...

, within

Brzesko County __NOTOC__ Brzesko County ( pl, powiat brzeski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government r ...

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in pl, województwo małopolskie ), also known as Małopolska, is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). It was created on 1 ...

, in southern Poland. It lies approximately west of

Szczurowa Szczurowa is a village in Brzesko County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Szczurowa. It lies approximately north of Brzesko and east of the regional capital Krakó ...

, north of

Brzesko Brzesko (; yi, בריגעל, ''Brigel'') is a town in southern Poland, in Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It lies approximately west of Tarnów and east of the regional capital Kraków. Since Polish administrative reorganization (in 1999), Brzesko ...

, and east of the regional capital

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 ...

. The village has a population of 950. The name of the village is tied to its location, at the mouth of the Raba, where it flows into the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

(Polish word "ujście" or "uście" means "river mouth"). The adjective Solne refers to salt, as for centuries, the river port at Uście served salt mines from

Bochnia Bochnia (german: Salzberg) is a town on the river Raba in southern Poland. The town lies approximately halfway between Tarnów (east) and the regional capital Kraków (west). Bochnia is most noted for its salt mine, the oldest functioning in Eu ...

. Uście Solne received town charter from 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 ...

, on May 18, 1360. Most likely, however, it had been a town before that date, and Kazimierz Wielki only confirmed the already existing charter, changing it from obsolete Sroda Slaska rights to the more modern

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 ...

After 1360, the new town of Uscie Uście was placed near Old Uście (Stare Uście), a village near the confluence of the Raba and the Vistula. Traces of earth fortification, which protected salt warehouses, are still visible. Uście Solne prospered in the second half of the 14th century, due to salt deposits, mined at Bochnia, and transported here along the Raba river. The town had a large medieval main square, as well as a town hall. Several residents of Uście Solne studied at Kraków’s

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

; three rectors of the university came from Uście (Stanislaw z Uścia Jakub Papenkowicz z Uścia, and Wojciech Papenkowicz). Uście Solne remained a river port of local importance until the first partition of Poland (1772). Its slow decline, however, began during

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

(1655–1660), when it was completely burned. Annexed by 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 ...

as part of Galicia, it quickly lost its importance after the Austrians built a new Vistula river port at nearby Swiniary. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, heavy fighting between Russian and Austro-Hungarian forces took place here, and the village has a military cemetery nr. 319, located near parish cemetery. Uście Solne lost its town charter in 1934.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Uscie Solne Villages in Brzesko County Kraków Voivodeship (14th century – 1795) Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria Kraków Voivodeship (1919–1939)