Piersławek is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Piecki __NOTOC__ Gmina Piecki is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Mrągowo County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the village of Piecki, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Piecki, which lies approximately south of Mrą ...

, within

Mrągowo County __NOTOC__ Mrągowo County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed i ...

, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northeastern Poland. It lies . northeast of Piecki, . southeast of

Mrągowo Mrągowo (until 1947 ; ; Masurian dialects, Masurian: Zondzbork) is a resort town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship of northeastern Poland, with 21,889 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Mrągowo County and the seat (though not part of ...

, and . east of

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

, the district (

Voivodeship A voivodeship ( ) or voivodate is the area administered by a voivode (governor) in several countries of central and eastern Europe. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times and the area of extent of voivodeship resembles that of a duchy in ...

) capital.

Geography

Piersławek lies amid the

Masurian Lakes The Masurian Lake District or Masurian Lake Land () is a lake district in northeastern Poland within the geographical region of Masuria, in the past inhabited by Masurians who spoke the Masurian dialects. It contains more than 2,000 lakes. The dis ...

in a region known as the

Baltic Uplands The Baltic UplandsDickinson, Robert E. (1964). ''Germany: A regional and economic geography'' (2nd ed.). London: Methuen, p. 614. . ( or ''Nördlicher Landrücken'') is a chain of morainic hills about wide that border the southern Baltic Sea from ...

. Small lakes, swamps, meadows and mixed forests abound in the area. Lake Wągiel (German: Wongel) lies north of Piersławek, and the source of the Dajna River is found nearby.

Transportation

Several highways traverse Piersławek, including National Highway 59 and Provincial Highway 610. The town lies . from

, . from

Mikołajki Mikołajki () is a resort town in Mrągowo County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in north-eastern Poland, with 3,852 inhabitants as of 2017. The town is located near the Śniardwy, the largest lake of both the Masurian Lake District and Poland. I ...

and from

. The closest international airport is

Olsztyn-Mazury Airport Olsztyn-Mazury Airport () is an international passenger airport in the North-East of Poland, branded as the gateway to the Masurian Lake District. It is located near Szymany, some 10 km from the centre of Szczytno in the Warmian-Masurian ...

History

Prior to the late Middle Ages, the region was inhabited by the

Old Prussians Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians were a Balts, Baltic people that inhabited the Prussia (region), region of Prussia, on the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea between the Vistula Lagoon to the west and the Curonian Lagoon ...

, an extinct Baltic people related linguistically to the

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

. The area was conquered by the

Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

in the mid-13th Century, and after the secularization of the Order in 1525 became part of

Ducal Prussia The Duchy of Prussia (, , ) or Ducal Prussia (; ) was a duchy in the region of Prussia established as a result of secularization of the Monastic Prussia, the territory that remained under the control of the State of the Teutonic Order until t ...

. Kleinort was founded in 1700 as a noble estate, and after 1701 was part of the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. Between 1818 and the transfer of the region to Poland after

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 ...

, it was in the ''Kreis'' (district) of Sensburg (now

). The village was occupied by the Red Army in late January 1945 during the Soviet conquest of East Prussia, and remaining German inhabitants who had not been killed or fled were eventually expelled and replaced by Polish settlers. The town became the Polish Piersławek after the war.

Points of interest

A forester's cottage (''photo at top right'') in the village was the childhood home of German writer and dedicated anti-Nazi Ernst Wiechert, born there on May 18, 1887, to forester Emil Wiechert and his wife Henriette (née Andreae).Försterei Sosnówka - Kleinort, Geburtshaus von Ernst Wiechert
/ref> Wiechert grew up there and later fictionalized some of his early experiences – including the house's setting, described in the novella ''Tobias'' (1938). A room in the house, which survived the war, has been dedicated to the memory of Wiechert, some of whose numerous works have been translated into Polish and English.

Notable residents

* Ernst Wiechert (1887-1950), German author

References

{{Gmina Piecki Villages in Mrągowo County