Wawrzyncowice
Encyclopedia
Wawrzyńcowice w, German Lorenzdorf is a village
Village
A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet with the population ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand , Though often located in rural areas, the term urban village is also applied to certain urban neighbourhoods, such as the West Village in Manhattan, New...

 in the administrative district of Gmina Strzeleczki
Gmina Strzeleczki
Gmina Strzeleczki, German Gemeinde Klein Strehlitz is a rural gmina in Krapkowice County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the village of Strzeleczki , which lies approximately west of Krapkowice and south of the regional capital Opole.The gmina covers an area of , and as...

 (Gemeinde Klein Strehlitz), within Krapkowice County
Krapkowice County
Krapkowice County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Krapkowice, which lies ...

, Opole Voivodeship
Opole Voivodeship
- Administrative division :Opole Voivodeship is divided into 12 counties : 1 city county and 11 land counties. These are further divided into 71 gminas.The counties are listed in the following table .- Economy :...

, in the south-western Polish region of Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia
Upper Silesia is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia. Since the 9th century, Upper Silesia has been part of Greater Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, the Piast Kingdom of Poland, again of the Lands of the Bohemian Crown and the Holy Roman Empire, as well as of...

. It lies approximately 7 kilometres (4 mi) south-west of Strzeleczki
Strzeleczki
Strzeleczki , German Klein Strehlitz is a village in Krapkowice County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina called Gmina Strzeleczki...

 (Klein Strehlitz), 12 km (7 mi) south-west of Krapkowice
Krapkowice
Krapkowice is a town in south-western Poland with 17,840 inhabitants , situated in the Opole Voivodeship, straddling both banks of the Oder River at the point where it joins with the Osobłoga. It is the regional capital of Krapkowice County....

, and 29 km (18 mi) south of the regional capital Opole
Opole
Opole is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River . It has a population of 125,992 and is the capital of the Upper Silesia, Opole Voivodeship and, also the seat of Opole County...

.

Before 1945 the area was part of Germany (see Territorial changes of Poland after World War II
Territorial changes of Poland after World War II
The territorial changes of Poland after World War II were very extensive. In 1945, following the Second World War, Poland's borders were redrawn following the decisions made at the Potsdam Conference of 1945 at the insistence of the Soviet Union...

). Since 2006 the village, like the rest of the commune, has been bilingual in German and Polish.

The village has a population of 86 people.

History

The village was first mentioned in 1679 as Wawrzinowice. The town's name derived from the name Lawrence (Wawrzyniec in Polish, Lorenz in German), which is also the derivation of the village's German name, Lorenzdorf (Lawrence's village). Initially the village was in the possession of the noble House of Schaffgotsch
House of Schaffgotsch
The Schaffgotsch family is one of the oldest noble Silesian families extant, dating back to the thirteenth century. They were first mentioned in the St. Gallen book of documents in 804 and 809, when they were domiciled in the Margraviate of Meissen, Franconia, and the Tyrol...

, then in 1821 it passed to Baron Seherr-Thoss, who sold it in the 1860s to Major Thiele-Winckler von Miechowitz, whose family owned the village until WWII. Before 1945 it belonged to the district of Landkreis Neustadt O.S.

In 1945 Silesia was given to Poland and the German population of Lorenzdorf was largely expelled. The village was renamed Wawrzyńcowice and annexed to the newly created Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship
Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province , is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centering on the historic region known as Upper Silesia...

. In 1950 it was reassigned to Opole Voivodeship
Opole Voivodeship
- Administrative division :Opole Voivodeship is divided into 12 counties : 1 city county and 11 land counties. These are further divided into 71 gminas.The counties are listed in the following table .- Economy :...

, and in 1999 reassigned from Prudnik County (formerly Neustadt O.S.) to Krapkowice County. On 17 May 2006 the entire commune of Strzelecki/Klein Strehlitz was declared bilingual in German and Polish, and on 24 November 2008 the old name German name Lorenzdorf was also made official.
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