Jurgów () is a village in the Spisz region of 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 ...

, near the border with

Slovakia Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and the Czech Republic to the northwest. Slovakia's m ...

and the town of

Bukowina Tatrzańska Bukowina Tatrzańska , () is a village in Tatra County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland, close to the border with Slovakia. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Bukowina Tatrzańska. It lies approximatel ...

, on the Białka river. It lies approximately east of

, north-east of

Zakopane Zakopane (Gorals#Language, Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has ...

, and south of the regional capital

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

History

It was founded in 1546 on

Vlach law The Vlach law (, , "Romanian law", or , "customs of the land", ) refers to the traditional Romanian people, Romanian Jus commune, common law as well as to various special laws and privileges enjoyed or enforced upon particularly pastoralism, past ...

in the possessions of the

Niedzica Castle Niedzica Castle, also known as Dunajec Castle (, , , ), is located in the southernmost part of Poland in Niedzica (Nowy Targ County in Lesser Poland). It was erected between the years 1320 and 1326 by Kokos of Brezovica on the site of an ancient ...

(also known as the ''Dunajec Castle''). At that time it belonged to the

Kingdom of Hungary The Kingdom of Hungary was a monarchy in Central Europe that existed for nearly a millennium, from 1000 to 1946 and was a key part of the Habsburg monarchy from 1526-1918. The Principality of Hungary emerged as a Christian kingdom upon the Coro ...

, although the owner of the area was then a Polish magnate Olbracht Łaski. According to legend, the settler of the village was a highlander robber called Jurko, hence the name of the village. The documents from the period 1589-1595 related to the sale of the Niedzica possessions by Olbracht Łaski to György Horváth, the village is mentioned in Hungarian as ''Gyurgow''. After the I World War in when the

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 ...

ceased to exist, the village became part of newly independent Poland. In 1939 when

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 ...

and

invaded Poland it was occupied by Slovakia. After the war it returned in 1945 to Poland. It is one of the 14 villages in the Polish part of the historical region of

Spiš Spiš ( ; or ; ) is a region in north-eastern Slovakia, with a very small area in south-eastern Poland (more specifically encompassing 14 former Slovak villages). Spiš is an informal designation of the territory, but it is also the name of one ...

(Polish: ''Spisz'').

Sights and attractions

* The beautiful and historic St Sebastian wooden church from about 1670. It is made completely of wood and is still in use today. The church has twice been rebuilt: first in 1811 and again in 1869. It is surrounded by large, very old trees. The walls and roof of the church are faced with wooden shingles, and it has a

Rococo Rococo, less commonly Roccoco ( , ; or ), also known as Late Baroque, is an exceptionally ornamental and dramatic style of architecture, art and decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colours, sculpte ...

-style interior, including many carved figures of angels, saints, etc. * A group of shepherds' huts in the "Podokólne" clearing. Grazing cows and sheep was a primary occupation of Jurgów's villagers, who owned a lot of pastureland in the Tatra mountains where they grazed their flocks, and had many shepherd's huts. After they lost their pastures in the Tatras, they moved their various structures down from the mountains and assembled them in a nearby clearing. They use these to shelter their cows and sheep from spring through autumn. Some people also stay there for a time during the same period. * An old water-powered

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logging, logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ...

, which is still in use today. * Sołtys's croft, which is currently a part of the Tatra Museum in

History

Sights and attractions

Gallery

References

External links