Zarzecze is a village in

Gmina Chybie Gmina Chybie is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland, in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia. Its seat is the village of Chybie. The gmina covers an area of , and as of 2019 its ...

Cieszyn County __NOTOC__ Cieszyn County ( pl, powiat cieszyński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland, on the Czech and Slovak border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result o ...

, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It has a population of 313 (2008). It lies on the right southern bank of the Goczałkowice Reservoir on the river Vistula. Contemporary territory covers only a small part of the former village existing since the 13th century, as it was inundated during the creation of Goczałkowice Reservoir in the 1950s. The name is of topographic origin and literally means '' placebehind a river'' (Polish: ''za rzeką'', whereas ''rzeka'' means ''a river'').

History

It is one of the oldest villages in Cieszyn Silesia. It was first mentioned in a document of

Bishop of Wrocław Bishops of the (Breslau )Wrocław Bishopric, Prince-Bishopric (1290–1918), and Archdiocese (since 1930; see Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Wrocław for details). Bishops * 1000–? – John (Johannes) * 1051–1062 – Hieronymus * 1063–1072 ...

issued on 23 May 1223 for Norbertine Sisters in Rybnik among villages paying them a tithe, as ''Zasere''. The name (''Zarzecze'', '' placebehind a river'', indicates that the primordial settlers came from the northern bank of the Vistula river (most probably from the village of Wisła, contemporary

Wisła Wielka Wisła Wielka (; german: Groß Weichsel; "Big Vistula") is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Pszczyna, within Pszczyna County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately south-west of Pszczyna and south of th ...

and Wisła Mała), and it could have been a part of the land that was ceded by Duke

Casimir II the Just Casimir II the Just ( pl, Kazimierz II Sprawiedliwy; 28 October 1138 – 5 May 1194) was a Lesser Polish Duke of Wiślica from 1166–1173, and of Sandomierz after 1173. He became ruler over the Polish Seniorate Province at Kraków and thereby Hig ...

to Mieszko I Tanglefoot around 1177. Subsequently it belonged then to the

Duchy of Opole and Racibórz The Duchy of Opole and Racibórz ( pl, Księstwo opolsko-raciborskie, german: Herzogtum Oppeln und Ratibor) was one of the numerous Duchies of Silesia ruled by the Silesian branch of the royal Polish Piast dynasty. It was formed in 1202 from the u ...

and the Castellany of Cieszyn, which was in 1290 formed in the process of feudal fragmentation of Poland into the

Duchy of Teschen The Duchy of Teschen (german: Herzogtum Teschen), also Duchy of Cieszyn ( pl, Księstwo Cieszyńskie) or Duchy of Těšín ( cs, Těšínské knížectví), was one of the Duchies of Silesia centered on Cieszyn () in Upper Silesia. It was split o ...

, ruled by a local branch of

Silesian Piast dynasty The Silesian Piasts were the elder of four lines of the Polish Piast dynasty beginning with Władysław II the Exile (1105–1159), eldest son of Duke Bolesław III of Poland. By Bolesław's testament, Władysław was granted Silesia as his h ...

. In 1327 the duchy became a fee of the Kingdom of Bohemia, which after 1526 became a part of the

Habsburg monarchy 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 ...

. In years 1573/1577–1594 it belonged to Skoczów-

Strumień Strumień (german: Schwarzwasser, cs, Strumeň) is a town and the seat of Gmina Strumień, in Cieszyn County, in the Silesian Voivodeship (province) of southern Poland, on the Vistula River. It is located in the north-eastern part of the hist ...

state country State country (german: Freie Standesherrschaft; cs, stavovské panství; pl, państwo stanowe) was a unit of administrative and territorial division in the Bohemian crown lands of Silesia and Upper Lusatia, existing from 15th to 18th centuries. T ...

that was split from the Duchy of Teschen but was later purchased back. After

Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire The Revolutions of 1848 in the Austrian Empire were a set of revolutions that took place in the Austrian Empire from March 1848 to November 1849. Much of the revolutionary activity had a nationalist character: the Empire, ruled from Vienna, incl ...

a modern municipal division was introduced in the re-established Austrian Silesia. The village as a municipality was subscribed to the political district of Bielsko and the legal district of

. According to the censuses conducted in 1880, 1890, 1900 and 1910 the population of the municipality grew from 2121 in 1880 to 2529 in 1910 with a majority being native Polish-speakers (between 98.6% and 99.6%) accompanied by a small German-speaking minority (at most 33 or 1.4% in 1900), in terms of religion in 1910 majority were

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

(99.2%), followed by 15 Jews and 2

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

. After World War I, fall of Austria-Hungary, Polish–Czechoslovak War and the division of Cieszyn Silesia in 1920, it became a part of Poland. It was then

annexed Annexation (Latin ''ad'', to, and ''nexus'', joining), in international law, is the forcible acquisition of one state's territory by another state, usually following military occupation of the territory. It is generally held to be an illegal act ...

by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II. After the war it was restored to Poland. Most of the former Zarzecze territory was engulfed by waters from the Goczałkowice Reservoir in 1955, including its centre with the church built in 1789.

People

Folklorist and writer Ludwik Kobiela was born in the village.

Gallery

File:POL Zarzecze Zalane centrum 1.jpg, Village's centre before 1955 File:POL Zarzecze Zalane centrum 2.jpg, Village's centre before 1955 File:POL Zarzecze (powiat cieszyński) Zalany kościół (1906).jpg, The Church of NMP Śnieżnej built in 1789 and drowned in 1955

Footnotes

References

* {{Cieszyn Silesia Villages in Cieszyn County Cieszyn Silesia