Wąsosz 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 Grajewo County,

Podlaskie Voivodeship Podlaskie Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in northeastern Poland. The name of the voivodeship refers to the historical region of Podlachia (in Polish, ''Podlasie''), and significant part of its territory corresponds to th ...

, in north-eastern 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 Wąsosz. It lies approximately south-west of

Grajewo Grajewo (; ) is a town in north-eastern Poland with 21,499 inhabitants (2016). It is the capital of Grajewo County within the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is located within the historic region of Masovia, near the border with Podlachia and Masuria. H ...

and north-west of the regional capital

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the List of cities and towns in Poland, tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Biał ...

Geography

It is situated on the Wissa River, a

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

of the

Biebrza The Biebrza (, ', ') is a river in northeastern Poland, a tributary of the Narew River (near Wizna), with a length of and a basin area of 7,092 km2 (7,067 in Poland).Władysław I of Płock Władysław I of Płock (1406/09 - 11/12 December 1455), was a Polish prince and member of the House of Piast from the Dukes of Masovia, Masovian branch. He was a Duke of Płock, Rawa Mazowiecka, Rawa, Gostynin, Sochaczew, Belz, Płońsk, Zawkrze ...

. It received Chełmno municipal rights from Duke Władysław I on 13 May 1436, and lost them in 1870 under the Russian rule following 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 ...

. In 1605 local burgher Andrzej Rogala founded a

Carmelite The Order of the Brothers of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel (; abbreviated OCarm), known as the Carmelites or sometimes by synecdoche known simply as Carmel, is a mendicant order in the Catholic Church for both men and women. Histo ...

monastery. The already well-developed town was destroyed in the Swedish Deluge of 1655-1656 and then rebuilt. The town hall was erected in 1789. Almost all of the streets were paved at around the same time. The town lost its importance due to the development of the nearby town of

Szczuczyn Szczuczyn (; ) is a town in Grajewo County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland. As of 2004, it has a population of 3,602. History The town is located in the north-eastern outskirts of Mazovia, which has been part of Poland since the establishment of ...

and the bypassing of Wąsosz by a new route connecting

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 ...

and Kowno. The Carmelite monastery was closed in 1864 by the Tsarist authorities in reprisal for help offered by monks to victims of 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 ...

. They were sent to

Katorga Katorga (, ; from medieval and modern ; and Ottoman Turkish: , ) was a system of penal labor in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union (see Katorga labor in the Soviet Union). Prisoners were sent to remote penal colonies in vast uninhabited a ...

chained by the neck.Wąsosz - Zamierzchłe czasy.

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

Following the joint German-Soviet

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 ...

in September 1939, it was first occupied by the Soviet Union until 1941, and then by Germany until 1944. On the night between 4 and 5 July 1941, during the Nazi invasion into Eastern Poland and the USSR, a small group of people murdered several dozens of the Jewish inhabitants of Wąsosz, in what is called the

Wąsosz pogrom The Wąsosz pogrom was the World War II mass murder of History of the Jews in Poland, Jewish residents of Wąsosz, Podlaskie Voivodeship, Wąsosz in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland, on 5 July 1941. The massacre was ca ...

Sights

One of the most impressive points of interest in Wąsosz is its late Gothic church from 1508, with three altars adorned with religious paintings. It is at the Old Market Square. There is also a

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary from the early 17th century.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Grajewo County Populated riverside places in Poland Holocaust locations in Poland