Bochotnica is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Kazimierz Dolny __NOTOC__ Gmina Kazimierz Dolny is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Puławy County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. Its seat is the town of Kazimierz Dolny, which lies approximately south of Puławy and west of the regiona ...

, within

Puławy County __NOTOC__ Puławy County ( pl, powiat puławski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland. It was first established in 1867, but its current borders were established on January 1, 1 ...

Lublin Voivodeship The Lublin Voivodeship, also known as the Lublin Province ( Polish: ''województwo lubelskie'' ), is a voivodeship (province) of Poland, located in southeastern part of the country. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Lublin, C ...

, in eastern Poland. It lies in historic province of

Lesser Poland Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...

, approximately north-east of

Kazimierz Dolny Kazimierz Dolny () is a small historic town in eastern Poland, on the right (eastern) bank of the Vistula river in Puławy County, Lublin Voivodeship. Historically it belongs to Lesser Poland, and in the past it was one of the most important citie ...

, south of

Puławy Puławy (, also written Pulawy) is a city in eastern Poland, in Lesser Poland's Lublin Voivodeship, at the confluence of the Vistula and Kurówka Rivers. Puławy is the capital of Puławy County. The city's 2019 population was estimated at 47 ...

, and west of the regional capital

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 ...

. The village has a population of 1,000, and is located on the right bank of the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in t ...

, on the road between Puławy and Kazimierz Dolny. The ruins of a 14th-century castle are located nearby. Bochotnica, which in the past was also called ''Bochotnica Mała'' (to distinguish it from nearby Bochotnica-Kolonia, or ''Bochotnica Wielka''), is one of the oldest settlements in Lesser Poland. In the early years of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 * Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exi ...

, it was an important gord, located along merchant route from

Kievan Rus Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas o ...

towards central Poland. It now is a local tourist center, due to the picturesque

Lesser Polish Gorge of the Vistula The Lesser Poland Gorge of the Vistula (Polish: ''Małopolski Przełom Wisły'') is a geographical region located in central-eastern Poland, which administratively belongs to three Polish voivodeships – Lublin, Masovian, and Świętokrzyskie. T ...

and proximity of Kazimierz Landscape Park. The village does not have a rail station, the nearest one is located at

. It is a local road junction, where three roads meet. Even though no documents exist to prove it, Bochotnica already was a defensive settlement in the 6th century. This was confirmed by archaeologists, who in 1993 found here remains of the gord, together with a pagan cemetery and several artifacts, such as bronze and iron tools, gold coins and a 10th-century sword. Together with neighboring Wąwolnica, Bochotnica was a local administrative center. In 1317, King Władysław Łokietek handed Bochotnica and other local villages to brothers Ostaszko and Dzierżko from Bejsce (

Lewart coat of arms Lewart is a Polish coat of arms. It was borne by several noble families of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Families that descended from the original medieval clan assumed this coat of arms, as well as those legally adopted into the clan. ...

). The defensive castle at Bochotnica was erected probably in 1340, after a devastating

Tatar The Tatars ()Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary is an umbrella term for different

raid of Lublin Land. The stronghold was rectangular shaped, located on a hill, which provided it with a good view of the area. In the 15th century, the castle belonged to the Kurowski family, then it passed into the hands of Voivode of Lublin, Jan Oleśnicki, who changed his last name into Bochotnicki. On his initiative, the castle was remodeled in

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

style. Bochotnicki died childless, and after his death, in the late 16th century, the castle began to turn into a ruin. The village belonged to several families (Borkowski, Tarło, Lubomirski, Sanguszko, Potocki), and in 1826 it was owned by

Adam Jerzy Czartoryski Adam Jerzy Czartoryski (; lt, Аdomas Jurgis Čartoriskis; 14 January 177015 July 1861), in English known as Adam George Czartoryski, was a Polish nobleman, statesman, diplomat and author. The son of a wealthy prince, he began his political c ...

, whose properties were confiscated by the Russians as a punishment for

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in the heartland of partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. The uprising began on 29 November 1830 in ...

. In 1886, new owner Józef Klemensowski, briefly considered reconstruction of the castle, but changed his plans. Until the Partitions of Poland, Bochotnica belonged to Lesser Poland’s

. In 1815, it became part of Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It ...

, and after

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, ...

, it returned to

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 ...

. On November 18, 1942, German occupiers murdered 45 people at local town square, as a reprisal for attack on a German patrol. After

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 ...

, Bochotnica was a center of anticommunist resistance. On May 24, 1945, a battle between ex-

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant Polish resistance movement in World War II, resistance movement in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed i ...

unit and the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

took place, in which 16 Soviet agents and 10 Polish Communist collaborators were killed.

References

External links

Photographs of castle ruins
{{Gmina Kazimierz Dolny Villages in Puławy County