Wojcieszków () 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 ...

Łuków County __NOTOC__ Łuków County ( pl, powiat łukowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland. It was established on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms ...

Lublin Voivodeship The Lublin Voivodeship, also known as the Lublin Province ( Polish: ''województwo lubelskie'' ), is a voivodeship (province) of Poland, located in southeastern part of the country. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Lublin, C ...

, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called

Gmina Wojcieszków __NOTOC__ Gmina Wojcieszków is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Łuków County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. Its seat is the village of Wojcieszków, which lies approximately south of Łuków and north of the regional capit ...

. 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 ...

, approximately south of

Łuków Łuków is a city in eastern Poland with 30,727 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2005). Since 1999, it has been situated in the Lublin Voivodeship, previously it had belonged to the Siedlce Voivodeship (between 1975–1998). It is the capital of � ...

and north of the regional capital Lublin. The village has a population of 1,100, and was a town from 1540 to 1819.

History

The village of Wojcieszkow was founded in 1437 by a local nobleman Klemens Bielinski. In the same year, Bishop of Kraków

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 ...

established a Roman Catholic parish church here. On January 21, 1540, upon request of Mikolaj Dzik, the owner of Wojcieszkow, King Sigismund I Old 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 ...

to it. In 1767, a wooden church of Holy Trinity was built, and in 1771, a Suchodolski family library was opened. Until the Partitions of Poland, Wojcieszkow belonged to the County of Stezyca,

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 late 18th century, the Plater family built a large manor house, which was burned during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. According to documents, in 1802 Wojcieszkow had a marketplace, a church, and a castle. The town, however, was on poor soil, among forests and sands, which had a negative impact on its development. As a result, Wojcieszkow gradually declined and, in 1819, was stripped of its town charter.

Today

The location of Wojcieszkow turned out to be an advantage. Due to its clean environment, hilly landscape and forests, the village is emerging as a local tourist center. It has a historic church and a cemetery, where Maria Babska, the wife of Henryk Sienkiewicz, is buried.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wojcieszkow Villages in Łuków County Lesser Poland Siedlce Governorate Lublin Governorate Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939)