Wyśmierzyce is a town in

Białobrzegi County __NOTOC__ Białobrzegi County ( pl, powiat białobrzeski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local gov ...

Masovian Voivodeship The Masovian Voivodeship, also known as the Mazovia Province ( pl, województwo mazowieckie ) is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, with its capital located in the city of Warsaw, which also serves as the capital of the country. Th ...

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 populou ...

, with 884 inhabitants (2004). Until 2017 it was the smallest town in Poland. It lies along National Road Nr. 48, on the right, southern bank of the

Pilica River Pilica is a river in central Poland, the longest left tributary of the Vistula river, with a length of 333 kilometres (8th longest) and a basin area of 9,258 km2 (all in Poland).Mazovia Mazovia or Masovia ( pl, Mazowsze) is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. It spans the North European Plain, roughly between Łódź and Białystok, with Warsaw being the unofficial capital and largest city. Throughout the centurie ...

, and is located close to its border with

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 ...

. The area of the town is approximately 16,84 km².

History

Until the late 17th century, the name of the town was spelled ''Wyszemierzyce'' (also ''Vyszemierzice'' and ''Wyssemierzyce''). The name comes from a male given name Wyszemir. Wyśmierzyce was granted

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 ...

on December 12, 1338. In 1378, first Roman Catholic parish was opened here, and in 1657, the town was completely destroyed by the army of Transilvanian prince

George II Rakoczi George may refer to: People * George (given name) * George (surname) * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Washington, First President of the United States * George W. Bush, 43rd Preside ...

during the Swedish Invasion of Poland. The town was administratively located in the Warka County in the

in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland, however by the 18th century it was transferred to the

Sandomierz Voivodeship Sandomierz Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo Sandomierskie, la, Palatinatus Sandomirensis) was a unit of administration and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. It was part of the Lesser Polan ...

in the Lesser Poland Province. Following the

Third Partition of Poland The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...

, in 1795, it fell to

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, within which it was administratively part of so-called

West Galicia New Galicia or West Galicia ( pl, Nowa Galicja or ''Galicja Zachodnia'', german: Neugalizien or ''Westgalizien'') was an administrative region of the Habsburg monarchy, constituted from the territory annexed in the course of the Third Partition ...

. It was regained by Poles following the

Austro–Polish War The Austro-Polish War or Polish-Austrian War was a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 (a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria). In this war, Polish forces of the N ...

of 1809, and included within the short-lived

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

. Following the duchy's dissolution, the town fell to Russian-controlled Congress Poland, from 1844 on as part of

Radom Governorate Radom Governorate (russian: Радомская Губерния, pl, Gubernia radomska) was a governorate of Congress Poland. History It was created in 1844 from the merger of the Sandomierz Governorate with Kielce Governorate. Its capital was ...

. In 1869, it was one of many towns stripped of its town rights by the Russian administration as a punishment for the unsuccessful Polish January Uprising of 1863–1864. After

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 ...

, in 1918, Poland regained independence and control of Wyśmierzyce. In 1922, town rights were restored. Within the interwar Second Polish Republic it was administratively part of the

Kielce Voivodeship Kielce Voivodeship ( pl, województwo kieleckie) is a former unit of administrative division and the local government in Poland. It was originally formed during Poland's return to independence in the aftermath of World War One, and recreated within ...

. Between 1973 and 2017 Wyśmierzyce was the smallest town in Poland. It ceased to be the smallest town when

Wiślica Wiślica is a town in Busko County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Wiślica. It lies on the Nida River, approximately south of Busko-Zdrój and so ...

, with a population of 503 (population in 2016), regained its city rights on 1 January 2018.Poland Parliament document
ejm.gov.pl

References

History of Wyśmierzyce

External links

Official town and commune webpage

Jewish Community in Wyśmierzyce
on Virtual Shtetl {{Authority control Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship Białobrzegi County Masovian Voivodeship (1526–1795) Radom Governorate Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939)