Czernina is a village (former

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

) in the administrative district of

Gmina Góra __NOTOC__ Gmina Góra is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Góra County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the town of Góra, which lies approximately north-west of the regional capital Wrocław. The ...

, within

Góra County __NOTOC__ Góra County ( pl, powiat górowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local governm ...

, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in western Poland. It lies approximately north-east of

Góra Góra (german: Guhrau) is a town in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the administrative seat both of Góra County and of the smaller district (gmina) called Gmina Góra. Geography The town is located within the historic Low ...

, and north-west of the regional capital

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, rou ...

. The village has a population of 940.

History

The oldest known mention of the village comes from 1284, when it was part of fragmented

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great. Branche ...

-ruled Poland. In the '' Liber fundationis episcopatus Vratislaviensis'' from ca. 1305 it was mentioned under its Old Polish name ''Czirnina''. Its name is of Polish origin. In the 14th century Czernina became a private village owned by Polish nobleman Jan of

Wierzbna coat of arms Wierzbna is a Polish coat of arms. It was used by several szlachta families in the times of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. History Blazon Notable bearers Notable bearers of this coat of arms include: * Jan de Czernina - starost ...

, who also founded the nearby town of Rydzyna. Later on, the village was also part of Bohemia (Czechia),

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In 1937, during a massive Nazi campaign of renaming of placenames, the village was renamed to ''Lesten'' to erase traces of Polish origin. After the defeat of Germany in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, in 1945, the village became again part of Poland and its historic name was restored.

Transport

The Polish S5 highway runs nearby, east of the village.

Notable people

* (1810–1877), Polish pastor and religious writer, opponent of Germanisation

References

Czernina Former populated places in Lower Silesian Voivodeship {{Góra-geo-stub