Zembrzyce 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 ...

Sucha County __NOTOC__ Sucha County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland, on the Slovakia, Slovak border. Its administrative seat and largest town is Sucha Beskidzka, which lies ...

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 ...

, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Zembrzyce __NOTOC__ Gmina Zembrzyce is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Sucha County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the village of Zembrzyce, which lies approximately north of Sucha Beskidzka and south-west of the re ...

. It lies approximately north of

Sucha Beskidzka Sucha Beskidzka (before 1961 called only ''Sucha'') is a town in the Żywiec Beskids mountain range in southern Poland, on the Skawa river. It is the county seat of Sucha County. It has been in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship since 1999; previously ...

and south-west of the regional capital

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 ...

History

Village Zembrzyce is the oldest village of Sucha Beskidzka district. The oldest document confirming its existence as Zubrzic comes from 1333. The village was established earlier – perhaps in the second half of the 13th century. The area of Zembrzyce was a border between Silesia and Lesser Poland in

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

. At the time Zembrzyce belonged to 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 ...

. These were the dukes of Oświęcim that established the village and built a fortified castle on a hill nearby the Skawa river. Nowadays, there aren't any ruins of the castle just the remains of the moat and the place is called Zamczysko. Still, the spot is considered mysterious and fascinating to the locals. Throughout centuries Zembrzyce were private property of nobility. The owners then changed the name of the village as to sound similar to their surname- Zubrzyccy. In the 16th century the final name Zembrzyce was established and it remains until today. Thanks to the owners’ efforts, in 1533 Zembrzyce became a separate parish. From the 16th century there were numerous changes of the village owners. From the 20th century Zembrzyce became specialized in the tanning industry. There exists a belief that inhabitants of Zembrzyce have got

Tatar Tatar may refer to: Peoples * Tatars, an umbrella term for different Turkic ethnic groups bearing the name "Tatar" * Volga Tatars, a people from the Volga-Ural region of western Russia * Crimean Tatars, a people from the Crimea peninsula by the B ...

ancestry; however this concept is not approved neither by any specific historical documents or facts, nor by ethnical and genetical traits of the inhabitants and the presence of medieval castle in the village in the past.

References

Villages in Sucha County {{Sucha-geo-stub