Wodzisław | |
|---|---|
Town | |
 Baroque St. Martin church | |
 Coat of arms | |
  Wodzisław | |
| Coordinates:50°31′12″N20°11′26″E / 50.52000°N 20.19056°E /50.52000; 20.19056 | |
| Country |  Poland |
| Voivodeship | Świętokrzyskie |
| County | Jędrzejów |
| Gmina | Wodzisław |
| Town rights | c. 1317 |
| Population | |
• Total | 1,100 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Vehicle registration | TJE |
| Highway |  |
| Website | http://www.wodzislaw.info.pl/ |
Wodzisław[vɔˈd͡ʑiswaf] is atown inJędrzejów County,Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in southern Poland.[1] It is the seat of thegmina (administrative district) calledGmina Wodzisław. It lies in historicLesser Poland, approximately 15 km (9 mi) south-west ofJędrzejów and 51 km (32 mi) south-west of the regional capitalKielce. The town has a population of 1,100.
Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Wodzisław was a property of theLanckoroński family. It is located on theS7 highway, the main highway connectingKraków withKielce,Radom andWarsaw.
Wodzisław has a long and rich history, which dates back to the reign of KingWładysław I Łokietek, who granted ittown rights in ca. 1317. At that time, it was called Włodzisław, and the town was a royal property. In 1370, KingCasimir III the Great handed the town over to local noblemen Zbigniew and Przedbor. In the 16th century, Wodzisław became property of theLanckoroński family, and was a local center of artisans. It was aprivate town, administratively located in theSandomierz Voivodeship in theLesser Poland Province. In 1551, the wooden Roman Catholic church was transferred to theCalvinists, and most residents switched to Calvinism. Wodzisław was one of main centers ofProtestant Reformation in Lesser Poland, here as many as 20 Calvinistsynods took place (1557, 1558, 1559, twice in 1560, 1561, 1566, 1583, 1589, 1590, 1595, twice in 1597, 1599, 1601, 1604, 1606, 1607, 1609, 1610, 1611, and 1612). Calvinist prayer house at Wodzisław was closed down in 1613, after theZebrzydowski Rebellion, when town’s owner Samuel Lanckoroński abandoned Calvinism and became a Roman Catholic. Soon afterwards, Lanckoroński built St. Martin church, and ordered all Calvinists either to convert, or to leave Wodzisław. The church burned in 1746, to be rebuilt in 1787 by Maciej Lanckoroński.
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The town had a castle, built in mid-16th century by Jan Lanckoroński. In the late 17th century, the castle was turned into a palace, and at the same time, first Jewish settlers came to Wodzisław, and in 1720, first synagogue was opened.
In theThird Partition of Poland in 1795 it was annexed by theHabsburg Empire. After the Polish victory in theAustro-Polish War of 1809, it became part of the short-livedDuchy of Warsaw, and after the duchy's dissolution, from 1815 to 1915, it was part ofRussian-controlledCongress Poland. According to the 1827 census, Wodzisław had a population of 1,760, with 191 houses. By 1857, the population grew to 2,081, with 1,463 Jews. In 1865, the town burned in a fire, and in 1869 it lost its town rights.
On 4 September 1939, during the Germaninvasion of Poland, which startedWorld War II, German troops committed a massacre of 30 Polish refugees fromSilesia.[2] Afterwards the town wasoccupied by Germany, and the occupiers committed further massacres andextrajudicial killings. In mid-June 1942, theSS committed a massacre of around 50 Jews.[2] On 20 November 1942, during the deportation of Jews toSandomierz, a 64-year-old man was shot by the occupiers for trying to escape.[2] In September and October 1943, the German gendarmerie and SS carried out massacres of 318 Jews.[2] On 8 July 1944, the German police perpetrated a massacre of 13 Poles during apacification action.[2] There were also multiple instances of executions of one, two or three Poles at a time, including those attempting to escape arrest.[2] In January 1945, the Germans executed three men, prisoners of theAuschwitz concentration camp, for attempting to escape while being transported west.[2]