Baborów (german: Bauerwitz) is a small town in southern

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 populous ...

near

Głubczyce Głubczyce ( cs, Hlubčice or sparsely ''Glubčice'', german: Leobschütz, Silesian German: ''Lischwitz'') is a town in Opole Voivodeship in southern Poland, near the border with the Czech Republic. It is the administrative seat of Głubczyce Co ...

, in the Opole Voivodeship,

Głubczyce County __NOTOC__ Głubczyce County ( pl, powiat głubczycki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland, on the Czech border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the P ...

Gmina Baborów __NOTOC__ Gmina Baborów is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Głubczyce County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the town of Baborów, which lies approximately south-east of Głubczyce and south of the regi ...

. As of December 2021, it has a population of 2,844.

History

The first mention of the town comes from 1296 in which a wójt Jarosław is mentioned. The town was most likely founded by a

Bohemian Bohemian or Bohemians may refer to: *Anything of or relating to Bohemia Beer * National Bohemian, a brand brewed by Pabst * Bohemian, a brand of beer brewed by Molson Coors Culture and arts * Bohemianism, an unconventional lifestyle, origin ...

magnate, Bavor (Babor). Later it was part of an independent duchy,

Habsburg The House of Habsburg (), alternatively spelled Hapsburg in Englishgerman: Haus Habsburg, ; es, Casa de Habsburgo; hu, Habsburg család, it, Casa di Asburgo, nl, Huis van Habsburg, pl, dom Habsburgów, pt, Casa de Habsburgo, la, Domus Hab ...

-ruled Bohemia, the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

and from 1871 and 1945 also

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. After the defeat of

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

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 opposin ...

it became part of Poland. It was granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

before 1340, although deprived of them from 1575 to 1718. In the 18th century, Baborów belonged to the tax inspection region of Prudnik. According to the German census of 1890, the town had a population of 2,707, of which 2,220 (82%) were

Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...

. It marked the 19th-century linguistic border between German, Polish, and Czech. During

, the town, then known as Bauerwitz, was the base for two working parties (E288 and E398) of British and Commonwealth

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

, under the administration of the German Stalag VIII-B/344 POW camp at Łambinowice (then known as Lamsdorf). In January 1945, as the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

armies resumed their offensive and advanced from the east, the prisoners were marched by the Germans westward in the so-called Long March or Death March. Many of them died from the bitter cold and exhaustion. The lucky ones got far enough to the west to be liberated by the allied armies after some four months of travelling on foot in appalling conditions. The town's German population was interned in Łambinowice camp, and expelled.

Notable people

* (1946–2019), Polish geographer and politician, member of the Polish

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...

International relations

Twin towns - sister cities

See twin towns of Gmina Baborów.

Gallery

2012-09 Baborów 33 Kolumna maryjna.jpg, St. Mary column 2012-09 Baborów 52 Pomnik.jpg, World War II memorial 2012-09 Baborów 37 kościół Narodzenia NMP.jpg, Assumption of Mary Church 2012-09 Baborów 10 kaplica p.w. Serca Jezusowego.jpg, Sacred Heart Chapel

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baborow Cities in Silesia Cities and towns in Opole Voivodeship Głubczyce County