Wierzbica Górna 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 Wołczyn, within

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

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship ( , , ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Silesia. A relatively lar ...

, in south-western Poland. It lies approximately west of

Wołczyn Wołczyn () is a town in Kluczbork County, Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland, with 5,907 inhabitants . According to 2011 data, it covers , and is the seat of Gmina Wołczyn. It is located within the historic region of Lower Silesia. His ...

, west of

Kluczbork Kluczbork (, ) is a town in south-western Poland with 23,554 inhabitants (2019), situated in the Opole Voivodeship. It is the capital of Kluczbork County and an important railroad junction. In Kluczbork the major rail line from Katowice splits i ...

, and north of the regional capital

Opole Opole (; ; ; ) is a city located in southern Poland on the Oder River and the historical capital of Upper Silesia. With a population of approximately 127,387 as of the 2021 census, it is the capital of Opole Voivodeship (province) and the seat of ...

. In 1945–1954 it was the seat of the rural administrative district of Wierzbica Górna. In 1975–1998 it administratively belonged to the province of Opole. Belonging to Wierzbica Górna are the rural hamlets Międzybrodzie and Leśnicówka (Wałda) along with settlements Cegielnia ('brickyard') and Kołaczek ('circular wedding bread'). For the history of the region, see

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

Name history

In 1295 the Latin Chronicle ''

Liber fundationis episcopatus Vratislaviensis (, 'Book of endowments of the Bishopric of Wrocław') is a Latin manuscript catalog of documents compiled in the later 13th or in the early 14th century. It lists towns and villages obliged to pay a tithe to the Bishopric of Wrocław. As a pr ...

'' (English: The Book of the Salaries of the Bishops of Wrocław) lists the town in the Latin as in the passage . It also gives the name as indicating that it was named according to Polish law. The geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland issued at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries has the name as ''Wierzbica Polska'' in Polish and ''Polnisch Wuerbitz'' in German.Wierzbica Polska w Słowniku geograficznym Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich Vol. VIII, p. 599
/ref> In 1911, when it was part of the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

, the rural community of ''Polnisch Würbitz'' was renamed ''Würbitz.'' On May 27, 1936, the name of the place was changed to ''Oberweiden O.S''.

References

{{Gmina Wołczyn Villages in Kluczbork County