Kruszyna 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 ...

Częstochowa County Częstochowa County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its adm ...

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 southern Poland. It is the seat of the

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 ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Kruszyna __NOTOC__ Gmina Kruszyna is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Częstochowa County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the village of Kruszyna, which lies approximately north-east of Częstochowa and north of the regi ...

. It lies approximately north-east of

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship. However, Częstochowa is historically part of Lesser Poland, not Si ...

and north of the regional capital

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

History

Kruszyna is one of the oldest villages of the region. It was first mentioned in 1337, as the seat of a Roman Catholic parish, with its own church. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the village belonged to the noble Koniecpolski family. In the early 17th century, it was property of Aleksandra Koniecpolska and her husband Kasper Doenhoff, a courtier of King Zygmunt III Waza, and

Voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

of Dorpat Voivodeship. After annexation of northern

Livonia Livonia, known in earlier records as Livland, is a historical region on the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea. It is named after the Livonians, who lived on the shores of present-day Latvia. By the end of the 13th century, the name was extende ...

by the

Swedish Empire The Swedish Empire or the Great Power era () was the period in Swedish history spanning much of the 17th and early 18th centuries during which Sweden became a European great power that exercised territorial control over much of the Baltic regi ...

(1620s), Doenhoff left his native province and settled in Kruszyna. He was one of favourite courtiers of the king, who named him Voivode of

Sieradz Voivodeship Sieradz Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship. A Voivodeship is an area administered by a voivode (Governor), and the Sieradz Voivodesh ...

and

Starosta Starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', ) is a community elder in some Slavic lands. The Slavic root of "starost" translates as "senior". Since the Middle Ages, it has designated an official in a leadersh ...

of both

Wieluń Wieluń () is a town in south-central Poland with 21,624 inhabitants (2021). The town is the seat of the Gmina Wieluń and Wieluń County, and is located within the Łódź Voivodeship. Wieluń is a capital of the historical Wieluń Land. W ...

and

Radomsko Radomsko () is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship. It is the county seat of Radomsko County. Founded in the 11th century, Radomsko is a former royal city located ...

. In 1630, Kasper Doenhoff commissioned Italian architect Tomasz Poncino to build a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

palace, in which in 1633, the wedding of Denhoff's daughter took place. King

Władysław IV Vasa Władysław IV Vasa or Ladislaus IV (9 June 1595 – 20 May 1648) was King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and claimant of the thrones of Monarchy of Sweden, Sweden and List of Russian monarchs, Russia. Born into the House of Vasa as a prince ...

visited Kruszyna several times. Furthermore, in February 1670, wedding reception of King

Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki Michael I (, ; 31 May 1640 – 10 November 1673) was the ruler of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth as List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 29 September 1669 until his death in 1673 ...

and his wife Eleanor of Austria, Queen of Poland took place at the Kruszyna Palace. Later on, the palace passed to the

Lubomirski The House of Lubomirski is a Princely Houses of Poland, Polish princely family. The Lubomirski family's coat of arms is the Drużyna coat of arms, which is similar to the Szreniawa coat of arms but without a cross. Origin and the coat ...

family. In the 19th century, the complex was remodelled. In 1827, the village had a population of 603. On September 4, 1939, during the German

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

which started

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 ...

, German troops carried out a massacre of dozens of

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

in the village (see ''

Nazi crimes against the Polish nation War crime, Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with Schutzmannschaft#Police battalions, auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occu ...

''). After World War II, the palace for a while housed an orphanage. By 1980, it was abandoned and neglected, together with adjacent park.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Częstochowa County Sites of Nazi war crimes during the Invasion of Poland