Liw 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 Liw, within

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

Masovian Voivodeship Masovian Voivodeship or Mazowieckie Province (, ) and any variation thereof, is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, containing Poland's capital Warsaw. Masovian Voivodeship has an area of and had a 2019 po ...

, in east-central Poland. It lies on the river Liwiec (also sometimes called the Liw), approximately west of

Węgrów Węgrów (; ) is a town in eastern Poland with 12,796 inhabitants (2013), capital of Węgrów County in the Masovian Voivodeship. History First mentioned in historical records in 1414, Węgrów received its city charter in 1441. Between 16th ...

and east of

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

History

Liw probably started as a gord guarding the ford across Liwiec river and the eastern borders of

Duchy of Masovia The Duchy of Masovia was a District duchy, district principality and a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385), Kingdom of Poland, existing during the Middle Ages. The state was centered in Mazovia in the northeastern Kingdom of Poland, a ...

, and the stronghold was moved from the original site to the area of the present castle, built in 1429, in the 13th century. First written document about Liw comes from 1304, during Masovian duke

Bolesław II of Masovia Bolesław II of Masovia or Bolesław II of Płock (pl: ''Bolesław II mazowiecki (płocki)''; ca. 1253/58 – 20 April 1313), was a Polish prince, member of the House of Piast, Duke of Masovia during 1262-1275 jointly with his brother, after 12 ...

rule. Liw received

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

in 1421 or earlier, and between 1493 and 1789 there were two separate towns, ''Liw Stary'' ("Old Liw") and ''Liw Nowy'' ("New Liw"), and this tradition survived in two ''Sołtys''(

Schultheiß In medieval Germany, the ''Schultheiß'' () was the head of a municipality (akin to today's office of mayor), a '' Vogt'' or an executive official of the ruler. As official (''villicus'') it was his duty to order his assigned village or county ( ...

) offices in the present village. Under the Masovian dukes the town was developing rapidly lying on the border with

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

, it became the capital of ''ziemia liwska'' ('Land of Liw'), a judicial center for the eastern Masovia region, it held a weekly

Street market A street market or open-air market, with alternative names such as: market square and sometimes charity market, in cases where the sale is made for charity reasons, is a market that is set up on certain days of the week, generally on the street i ...

, and three times a year there was a

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

there. It was finally incorporated into

Crown of the Kingdom of Poland The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (; ) was a political and legal concept formed in the 14th century in the Kingdom of Poland, assuming unity, indivisibility and continuity of the state. Under this idea, the state was no longer seen as the Pat ...

in 1537, upon the settlement between the last princes of Masovia

Anna of Masovia Anna of Masovia (c. 1498 – after 26 January 1557) was a Polish princess, Titular Duchess of Masovia and the last representative of the Masovian branch of the Piast dynasty. She was the second daughter of Konrad III of Masovia and Anna R ...

and Polish king

Sigismund I the Old Sigismund I the Old (, ; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV of P ...

. Town continued its development and growth into the 17th century, when the wars,

Deluge (history) The Deluge was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense, it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce of Andrusovo in 1667, comprising the Po ...

and

Great Northern War In the Great Northern War (1700–1721) a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern Europe, Northern, Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the ant ...

, brought a physical destruction and a serious decline to the municipality. It lost some of its importance to

but its final demise was brought by the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

as it was incorporated into the Austrian Partition, the Liw lost its judicial, administrative and economic importance, Austrians dissolved the administrative and territorial unit of ''ziemia liwska'' and moved the seat of administrative and judicial powers to

Siedlce Siedlce () ( ) is a city in the Masovian Voivodeship in eastern Poland with 77,354 inhabitants (). The city is situated between two small rivers, the Muchawka and the Helenka, and lies along the European route E30, around east of Warsaw. It is ...

. In 1807 town became part of the

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

, and already resembled more a large village than a town. In 1815 it became part of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. During the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

there took place a battle,

Battle of Liw A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force c ...

, between Polish insurrectionists forces and Russian army in April 1831, which led to the Russian forces withdrawing across the Liwiec river. Based on the

Tsar Tsar (; also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar''; ; ; sr-Cyrl-Latn, цар, car) is a title historically used by Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word '' caesar'', which was intended to mean ''emperor'' in the Euro ...

's order Liw lost its status as a town and became a village in 1866 as the punishment for the town's participation in the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

. The village has a ruin of Gothic castle (originally built by the Masovian princes before 1429) and a neo-Gothic church (built 1905–1907).

References

External links

Jewish Community in Liw
on Virtual Shtetl {{Gmina Liw Villages in Węgrów County Kulm law