Łowkowice is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Strzeleczki __NOTOC__ Gmina Strzeleczki, German Gemeinde Klein Strehlitz is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Krapkowice County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the village of Strzeleczki (Klein Strehlitz), which lies approxi ...

(Gemeinde Klein Strehlitz), within

Krapkowice County __NOTOC__ Krapkowice County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 199 ...

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship ( , , ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Silesia. A relatively lar ...

, in the south-western Polish region of

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

. Since 2006 the village, like the entire commune, has been bilingual in German and Polish.

History

The village had already invested in

German town law The German town law () or German municipal concerns (''Deutsches Städtewesen'') was a set of early town privileges based on the Magdeburg rights developed by Otto I. The Magdeburg law became the inspiration for regional town charters not only i ...

in the early 13th century, and was first mentioned in written documents as Lofcovici in 1218. It was later named in 1534 as Lowkowitz. The name is thought to derive from the name Łowek. During the Middle Ages the town frequently changed hands, before finally in 1561 passing to the Oppersdorff family of Oberglogau. In 1936 the Nazi government renamed the village Jägershausen because of its Slavic-sounding name. Before 1945 it belonged to the district of Landkreis Neustadt O.S. The village windmill was built in 1868 of brick, and was recently renovated by a private owner and converted into a restaurant. The town park and palace, dating to the late 19th century and built for a landowning family, are privately owned. The town chapel, also built of brick, also dates to the 19th century. In 1945 Silesia was given to Poland and the German population of Lobkowitz was largely expelled. The village was renamed Łowkowice and annexed to the newly created

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...

. In 1950 it was reassigned to

, and in 1999 reassigned from

Prudnik County __NOTOC__ Prudnik County () 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 Polish local government ref ...

(formerly Neustadt O.S.) to Krapkowice County. On 17 May 2006 the entire commune of Strzelecki/Klein Strehlitz was declared bilingual in German and Polish, and on 24 November 2008 the old name German name Lobkowitz was also made official.

References

{{Gmina Strzeleczki Villages in Krapkowice County Populated riverside places in Poland

History

See also

References