Lasocin, Opatów County Explained

Lasocin
Settlement Type:Village
Total Type: 
Subdivision Type:Country
Subdivision Type1:Voivodeship
Subdivision Name1:Świętokrzyskie
Subdivision Type2:County
Subdivision Name2:Opatów
Subdivision Type3:Gmina
Subdivision Name3:Ożarów
Coordinates:50.8969°N 21.7572°W
Pushpin Map:Poland
Pushpin Label Position:bottom
Population Total:318

Lasocin is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ożarów, within Opatów County, Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in south-central Poland. It lies in Lesser Poland, approximately 7km (04miles) east of Ożarów, 260NaN0 north-east of Opatów, and 810NaN0 east of the regional capital Kielce.[1] The village used to be a town from 1547 to 1869.

Lasocin lies at the foothills of the Swietokrzyskie Mountains, among hills and valleys, five kilometers from the Vistula river. The village is located two kilometers south of National Road Nr. 74, which goes from Kielce to Zamość. Lasocin is made of several smaller settlements: Blonia, Kolonie Lasocinskie, Nowy Lasocin and Lasocin Poduchowny. It has a market square, a few streets, a school, a library, stores and several enterprises.

The history of the village dates back to the year 1547, when it was founded by a local nobleman Andrzej Lasota, in a forest which was part of the ancient village of Debno. Lasocin was granted Magdeburg rights by King Zygmunt August, upon request of Lasota, who named the town after himself. In the late 16th century, the town became associated with the Polish Brethren, as the Lasota family, which owned Lasocin until 1592, promoted the Protestant Reformation. After the Lasotas, the town belonged to the Olesnicki family. In 1662, Zbigniew Olesnicki, the castellan of Wislica and the starosta of Opoczno funded here a Roman Catholic parish church. The church was blessed on August 20, 1664, by Bishop of Kraków Mikolaj Oborski.

Until the Partitions of Poland Lasocin was part of the Sandomierz Voivodeship. In 1815 - 1915, it belonged to Russian-controlled Congress Poland, and remained in private hands until the mid-19th century. Its residents mostly supported themselves as farmers, there also were some lumberjacks, who cut down trees for timber used by the Vistula river port at nearby Sulejow. Furthermore, in the early 19th century the town was a local center of weaving. Following many other locations of northern Lesser Poland, Lasocin lost its town charter in 1869, as a reprisal of Russian authorities for the residents’ support of the January Uprising.

Among points of interest there is a neo-romantic church of Michael Archangel (1930s), with a Baroque altar (1700), which had been moved from an earlier, wooden church.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Central Statistical Office (GUS) - TERYT (National Register of Territorial Land Apportionment Journal) . 2008-06-01 . Polish.