Mszana Dolna is a town in

Limanowa County __NOTOC__ Limanowa County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 19 ...

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). Its capital and largest city is Kraków. The province's name recalls the traditional name of a h ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, with 7,431 inhabitants (2004). Mszana Dolna lies among the hills of western

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 ...

, south 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 ...

. The town is located in a deep valley, surrounded by several ranges, including the

Gorce Mountains The Gorce Mountains (, ) are part of the Western Beskids mountain range spreading across southernmost Poland. They are situated in Małopolska Province, at the western tip of the long Carpathian range extending east beyond the Dunajec River for ...

featuring

Gorce National Park Gorce National Park () is a List of National Parks of Poland, national park in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It covers central and northeastern parts of the Gorce Mountains, which are part of the Western Beskids (at the western end ...

. Mszana is located along National Road Nr. 28, which goes west–east, from Zator to

Przemyśl Przemyśl () is a city in southeastern Poland with 56,466 inhabitants, as of December 2023. Data for territorial unit 1862000. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship, Subcarpathian Voivodeship. It was previously the capital of Prz ...

. In 2002, the area of Mszana Dolna was , out of which forests covered 50%, and arable land 36%.

History

Mszana Dolna was first mentioned in 1365. It received its

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

some time in the late 14th or early 15th century, and since its inhabitants were mostly German

Walddeutsche (lit. "Forest Germans" or – "Deaf Germans"; – "deaf Germans") was the name for a group of German-speaking people, originally used in the 16th century for two language islands around Łańcut and Krosno, in southeastern Poland. Both of th ...

, the town was called ''Kinsbark'' (or ''Königsberg''). Kinsbark lost its town privileges some time in the mid-15th century, and the former town, which had changed its name into ''Mieścisko'', was in 1464 merged with the village of ''Mszany''. The village was completely burned in the

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge 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 of Andrusovo in 1667, comprising the Pol ...

(1655–1660). Mszana administratively belonged to the Kraków Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province until the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

in 1772, when it was annexed by the

Habsburg Empire The Habsburg monarchy, also known as Habsburg Empire, or Habsburg Realm (), was the collection of empires, kingdoms, duchies, counties and other polities (composite monarchy) that were ruled by the House of Habsburg. From the 18th century it is ...

, and made part of its newly formed province of Galicia. In 1918, Mszana returned to

, as the country regained independence. In early September 1939, during the German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

at the start of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the

10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade The Polish 10th Armoured Cavalry Brigade () was an armoured formation of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. It was organized in France during World War II as part of the Polish Army in France, mostly by veterans of the 10th Motorized Cavalry ...

of General

Stanisław Maczek Lieutenant General Stanisław Władysław Maczek (; 31 March 1892 – 11 December 1994) was a Polish tank commander of World War II, whose division was instrumental in the Allied liberation of France, closing the Falaise pocket, resulting in the ...

fought here against the advancing

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

. During the war, Mszana lost one-third of its population, including its Jewish residents, of whom 881 were murdered by the Germans on 19 August 1942. After the unsuccessful Polish

Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising (; ), sometimes referred to as the August Uprising (), or the Battle of Warsaw, was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from ...

, in October 1944, the Germans deported 4,700

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

(mainly old people, ill people and women with children) from the Dulag 121 camp in

Pruszków Pruszków is a city in east-central Poland, capital of Pruszków County in the Masovian Voivodeship. Pruszków is located along the western edge of the Warsaw metropolitan area. Pruszków is the largest city in the Warsaw metropolitan area outs ...

, where they were initially imprisoned, to Mszana Dolna. In 1952 Mszana Dolna regained its town rights. Currently, it is an important tourist center, with hotels, restaurants and several tourist trails marked with different colors, leading into the mountains.

Nearby municipalities

* Dobra, Lubomierz, Limanowa County * Rabka

Notable people

* Franciszek Barda (1880–1964), Polish bishop,

Bishop of Przemyśl A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

References

External links

* http://www.mszana-dolna.pl
Jewish Community in Mszana Dolna
on Virtual Shtetl

The historic farm "Stara Winiarnia" – now a hotel and restaurant {{Authority control Cities and towns in Lesser Poland Voivodeship Limanowa County Holocaust locations in Poland

History

Nearby municipalities

Notable people

See also

References

External links