Śmiłowice () is a

sołectwo A sołectwo ( Polish plural: ''sołectwa'') is an administrative unit in Poland, an optional subdivision of a gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. ...

Mikołów Mikołów (, ) is a town in Silesia, in southern Poland, near the city of Katowice. Outer town of the Metropolis GZM, a metropolis with a population of over 2 million, and is within a greater Katowice-Ostrava metropolitan area populated by abou ...

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 ...

, southern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It was an independent village but as a part of

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

Mokre was administratively merged into Mikołów in 1975.

History

The village was first mentioned in the 14th century. During the political upheaval caused by

Matthias Corvinus Matthias Corvinus (; ; ; ; ; ) was King of Hungary and King of Croatia, Croatia from 1458 to 1490, as Matthias I. He is often given the epithet "the Just". After conducting several military campaigns, he was elected King of Bohemia in 1469 and ...

the land around Pszczyna was overtaken by Casimir II, Duke of Cieszyn, who sold it in 1517 to the Hungarian

magnate The term magnate, from the late Latin ''magnas'', a great man, itself from Latin ''magnus'', "great", means a man from the higher nobility, a man who belongs to the high office-holders or a man in a high social position, by birth, wealth or ot ...

s of the Thurzó family, forming the

Pless Pleß or Pless may refer to: Places *Pleß, a municipality in the district of Unterallgäu in Bavaria, Germany * Pszczyna (German: Pleß), a town in southern Poland ** Duchy of Pless, a historic territory in Silesia * Pleß (mountain), a mountai ...

state country State country (; ; ) was a unit of administrative and territorial division in the Bohemian crown lands of Silesia and Upper Lusatia, existing from 15th to 18th centuries. These estates were exempt from feudal tenure by privilege of the Bohemian ...

. In the accompanying sales document issued on 21 February 1517 the village was mentioned as ''Smilowicze''. After

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

in the

Upper Silesia plebiscite The Upper Silesia plebiscite was a plebiscite mandated by the Versailles Treaty and carried out on 20 March 1921 to determine ownership of the province of Upper Silesia between Weimar Germany and the Second Polish Republic. The region was ethni ...

231 out of 266 voters in Śmiłowice voted in favour of joining Poland, against 35 opting for staying in Germany. In years 1945-1954 it was a seat of a

encompassing also Mokre, Borowa Wieś, Paniowy and Stara Kuźnia (now part of Halemba district of Ruda Śląska). In 1973 the gmina was re-established but with the seat moved to Mokre, and two years later absorbed by Mikołów (apart from Stara Kuźnia).

References

Neighbourhoods in Silesian Voivodeship Mikołów County {{Mikołów-geo-stub