Łazy is a town in Zawiercie County, Silesian Voivodeship,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. Until 1947 the town was the seat of the Rokitno Szlacheckie municipality. In the years 1975–1998 the town administratively belonged to the Katowice province. As of 2019, the town has 6,811 inhabitants. During

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, German occupiers changed the name to ''Lazy'' then to ''Lasern'' without a legislative decree. Łazy belongs to the province of Lesser Poland, and since its foundation until the

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

, it was part of Krakow Voivodeship.

History

In the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, in the area of today's Łazy were five settlements: Grabowa, Niegowonice, Wiesiolka, Wysoka and Ciagowice. Another village, which today is located within boundaries of Łazy, Chruszczobrod, belonged to the Duchy of Siewierz, which was incorporated into the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1790. In the year 1386, King Wladyslaw Jagiello granted the villages of Niegowonice, Wiesiolka, Wysoka, Grabowa and Rokitno Szlacheckie to Wlodek of Charbinowice, the

starosta The starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', german: link=no, Starost, Hauptmann) is a term of Slavic origin denoting a community elder whose role was to administer the assets of a clan or family estates. Th ...

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...

and czesnik of

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 159 ...

. Until 1795, Grabowa, Hutki Kanki and Niegowoniczki belonged to Lelow County, while Niegowonice, WiesióΠka,Wysoka, Ciagowice, Rokitno Szlacheckie and Turza were part of Kraków County. During the

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) 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 ...

, the area of today's Łazy witnessed heavy fighting and destruction. Stanislaw Warszycki, owner of the so-called Ogrodzieniec Properties, fought Swedish invaders. As a result, the Ogrodzieniec Castle was destroyed, together with numerous villages, such as Grabowa, with its fortified stronghold on the Lesser Poland – Silesian border. After the Third Partition of Poland (1795), the boundary between the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: ...

and the Habsburg Empire was established on the upper Pilica river. The area of Łazy was seized by Prussia, as part of the province of New Silesia. In 1807, after the Treaties of Tilsit, it was annexed by the Duchy of Warsaw, which in 1815 became Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and remained part of

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the List of Russian monarchs, Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended th ...

until

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

. The village of Łazy for the first time appeared on maps in ca. 1790. It remained a small settlement, located next to the much larger village of

Rokitno Szlacheckie Rokitno Szlacheckie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Łazy, within Zawiercie County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately east of Łazy, south of Zawiercie, and north-east of the regional capital K ...

. Łazy owes its development to the construction of the Warsaw–Vienna railway (completed in 1848). During the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

, a skirmish between Polish rebels and Russian troops took place near Lazy on March 22, 1863. Until 1927, Łazy belonged to the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing ove ...

of Rokitno Szlacheckie, Bedzin County. In the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

, it was originally part of Kielce Voivodeship, and on January 1, 1927, the gmina of Rokitno Szlacheckie was transferred to Zawiercie County. The village of Lazy was captured by the Wehrmacht in early September 1939, and remained in German hands until January 20, 1945. After the war, the government of

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

transferred Łazy to Katowice Voivodeship, creating the

of Łazy in late 1945. In Communist Poland, Łazy was a local center of industry, with Cement Works Wysoka, Pottery Plant, and large cargo depot of Polish State Railways. In the late 1940s, houses of culture, cinemas and libraries were opened in the gmina of Łazy. The village went through the period of quick development in the 1960s, when waterworks and electrification program were completed. Finally, on January 1, 1967, Łazy received town charter.

War cemetery

The War Cemetery was founded during 1914–1918. There are graves of Austrian and German soldiers who fought in

. The cemetery is situated in the western part of the city, on the Podlesie estate on the Konstytucja road. In the neighbourhood of the cemetery there is a parish dedicated to Maximilian Kolbe.

Landmarks

*Depot buildings from the late 19th century *Locomotive Ty45 – 421 *Refractories factory buildings from the late 19th century *Wooden buildings from the late 19th century *Saint Michael's church built in years 1934–1949 *Historic water tower

References

External links

Jewish Community in Łazy
on Virtual Shtetl
Łazy war cemetery
(in Polish) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lazy Cities and towns in Silesian Voivodeship Zawiercie County Piotrków Governorate Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939)