Lanckorona is a village located south-west of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

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

. It lies on the

Skawinka The Skawinka is a river in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Lesser Poland Voivodeship of Poland, and a right tributary of the Vistula River. The Skawinka is long and has a drainage basin of . Its average discharge is ( from the mouth). Its sourc ...

river, among the hills of the

Beskids The Beskids or Beskid Mountains (, , , (), ()) are a series of mountain ranges in the Carpathians, stretching from the Czech Republic in the west along the border of Poland with Slovakia up to Ukraine in the east. The highest mountain in the Be ...

above sea level Height above mean sea level is a measure of a location's vertical distance (height, elevation or altitude) in reference to a vertical datum based on a historic mean sea level. In geodesy, it is formalized as orthometric height. The zero level ...

. It is known for the Lanckorona Castle, today in ruins. Lanckorona is also known for the Battle of the Bar Confederation that took place at the castle and within a range south of the town borders on 22 February 1771. In recent years, Lanckorona has become a tourist attraction for the well preserved 19th century wooden houses in its centre. The

township A township is a form of human settlement or administrative subdivision. Its exact definition varies among countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, this tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Canad ...

of Lanckorona was established by

Casimir III the Great Casimir III the Great (; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, retaining the title throughout the Galicia–Volhynia Wars. He was the last Polish king fr ...

in 1336, to protect the road to

, following the creation of new regional borders following the homage given by

Mieszko I, Duke of Cieszyn Mieszko I of Cieszyn (, , ; also known as Mieszko I of Opole; 1252/56 – by 27 June 1315), was a Duke of Racibórz during 1282–1290 (with his brother as co-ruler) and the first Duke of Cieszyn since 1290 until his death. He was the oldest son ...

Wenceslaus II of Bohemia Wenceslaus II Přemyslid (; ; 27 SeptemberK. Charvátová, ''Václav II. Král český a polský'', Prague 2007, p. 18. 1271 – 21 June 1305) was King of Bohemia (1278–1305), Duke of Cracow (1291–1305), and King of Poland (1296–130 ...

in 1291. Lanckorona lost its town rights on 13 July 1933 as its population declined.

History

As documented by

Jan Długosz Jan Długosz (; 1 December 1415 – 19 May 1480), also known in Latin as Johannes Longinus, was a Polish priest, chronicler, diplomat, soldier, and secretary to Bishop Zbigniew Oleśnicki of Kraków. He is considered Poland's first histo ...

, the chronicler and diplomat, in his manuscripts,

had erected the Lanckorona Castle to protect the road to

and its borders with the

Duchy of Oświęcim The Duchy of Oświęcim (), or the Duchy of Auschwitz (), was one of the Duchies of Silesia in the lands of Lesser Poland (Małopolska), formed in the aftermath of the fragmentation of Poland, centered around Oświęcim. It was established a ...

. The castle was already standing at the time of the erection of Saint John the Baptist Roman Catholic Parish Church of Lanckorona in 1336. In its Township Act, King

gave its inhabitants the right to hold a weekly Thursday town marketplace as well as a concession to import beer into the town. At the time, the dwellers of Lanckorona enjoyed the same rights as the inhabitants of its much larger neighbouring Capital City of

. Two of the main battles of the

Bar Confederation The Bar Confederation (; 1768–1772) was an association of Polish nobles (''szlachta'') formed at the fortress of Bar, Ukraine, Bar in Podolia (now Ukraine), in 1768 to defend the internal and external independence of the Polish–Lithuanian C ...

, a league of Polish nobles and gentry formed to defend the liberties of the nobility and the independence of Poland from Russian encroachment, took place on the plains before Lanckorona. On 22 February 1771, the Bar Confederates defended Lanckorona and its castle from the Russian army led by

Alexander Suvorov Count Alexander Vasilyevich Suvorov-Rymniksky, Prince of Italy () was a Russian general and military theorist in the service of the Russian Empire. Born in Moscow, he studied military history as a young boy and joined the Imperial Russian ...

. In 1602, Mikołaj Zebrzydowski the

Voivode Voivode ( ), also spelled voivod, voievod or voevod and also known as vaivode ( ), voivoda, vojvoda, vaivada or wojewoda, is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe in use since the Early Mid ...

and Lanckorona commissioned the construction of the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska monastery and the trails of the Passion of Christ in the neighbouring town of Kalwaria Zebrzydowska modeled on the

Calvary Calvary ( or ) or Golgotha () was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where, according to Christianity's four canonical gospels, Jesus was crucified. Since at least the early medieval period, it has been a destination for pilgrimage. ...

outside the city walls of

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

References

External links

* *Official website of Lanckoron

*Official website of the Region of Małopolsk

{{Authority control Villages in Wadowice County