Hałcnów () is an
osiedle
(Polish plural: ) is a term used in Poland to denote a designated subdivision or neighbourhood of a city or its , or of a town, with its own council and executive. Like the and sołectwo, an is an auxiliary unit (''jednostka pomocnicza'') of ...
(district) of
Bielsko-Biała
Bielsko-Biała (; ; , ; ) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 166,765 as of December 2022, making it the List of cities and towns in Poland#Largest cities and towns by population, 22nd largest city in Poland, and an a ...
,
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 is located in the north-east part of the city. It was a separate municipality, but was merged into Bielsko-Biała in 1977. The osiedle has an area of 13.5091 km
2 and on December 31, 2006 had 7,747 inhabitants.
History
The village was first mentioned in 1404. Politically the village belonged then to the
Duchy of Oświęcim
The Duchy of Oświęcim (), or the Duchy of Auschwitz (), was one of the Duchies of Silesia in the lands of Lesser Poland (Małopolska), formed in the aftermath of the fragmentation of Poland, centered around Oświęcim.
It was established a ...
, a
fee of the
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia (), sometimes referenced in English literature as the Czech Kingdom, was a History of the Czech lands in the High Middle Ages, medieval and History of the Czech lands, early modern monarchy in Central Europe. It was the pr ...
. In 1457
Jan IV of Oświęcim
Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to:
Acronyms
* Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN
* Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code
* Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group
* Japanese Article Nu ...
agreed to sell the duchy to the
Polish Crown, and in the accompanying document issued on 21 February the village was mentioned as ''Halcznow''. This name derives from a Polonization of the original German name ''Alzen'' or ''Alzenau''. The territory of the Duchy of Oświęcim was eventually incorporated into Poland in 1564 and formed
Silesian County
The Silesian County (Polish language, Polish: ''powiat śląski'') was a powiat, county of the Kraków Voivodeship (14th century – 1795), Kraków Voivodeship, within the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland, Polish–Lithuanian Comm ...
of
Kraków Voivodeship.
Upon the
First Partition of Poland
The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...
in 1772 it became part of the
Austrian Kingdom of
Galicia. The town was a part of a German
language island
A language island (a calque of German ''Sprachinsel''; also language enclave, language pocket) is an enclave of a language that is surrounded by one or more different languages. The term was introduced in 1847. Many speakers of these languages als ...
around
Bielsko (German: ''Bielitz-Bialaer Sprachinsel'').
In 1786 the village became a seat of a Catholic parish.
According to the
Austrian census of 1900 the village had 2669 inhabitants living in 288 houses. The census asked people their native language, and results show that 1986 (74,4%) were German-speaking and 678 (25,4%) were Polish-speaking. The dominant religious groups were
Roman Catholics
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...
with 2652 (99,4%), 11 (0,4%)
Jews
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and 6 persons were adherents of another religion.
[Ludwig Patryn (ed): ]
Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder, bearbeitet auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900, XII. Galizien
', Wien 1907. A specific Germanic
ethnolect
An ethnolect is generally defined as a language variety that marks speakers as members of ethnic groups who originally used another language or distinctive variety. According to another definition, an ethnolect is any speech variety (language, dia ...
was also spoken here.
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 ...
and fall of
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...
it became part of
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 annexed by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
at the beginning of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, and afterwards it was restored to Poland. The local German-speaking population
was expelled.
See also
*
Alzenau dialect
Halcnovian , alternatively spelled Haltsnovian, is an East Central German dialect spoken in the former village of Hałcnów, which is now a district of Bielsko-Biała, Silesian Voivodeship, Poland. It was the vernacular language of Hałcnów unti ...
References
Bielsko-Biała
Neighbourhoods in Silesian Voivodeship
{{Silesian-geo-stub