Guźnia

Guźnia
Village
Polish war cemetery from World War II in Guźnia
Guźnia
Coordinates: 52°5′1″N 19°48′45″E
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Łódź
County	Łowicz
Gmina	Łowicz
Population	175[1]
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)

Guźnia [ˈɡuʑɲa] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Łowicz, within Łowicz County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. It lies approximately 9 kilometres (6 mi) west of Łowicz and 41 km (25 mi) north-east of the regional capital Łódź. It is located within the historic region of Mazovia.

History

Guźnia dates back to the 14th century, and was first mentioned in 1367.^[2] Its name is derived from the Old Polish word gozd ("forest").^[2] Guźnia was a private church village within the Polish Crown, administratively located in the Rawa Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown, owned by the Archdiocese of Gniezno. In the second half of the 16th century, the village was located in the administrative unit Sochaczew Land of the local government Rawa Voivodeship in the historical Kingdom of Poland.^[3] It belonged to the Chruślin estate of the Archbishops of Gniezn.^[4]

During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, on September 16, 1939, Wehrmacht troops murdered 12 Polish farmers from Guźnia and nearby Bocheń near the Rydwan lake, south Guźnia (see also Nazi crimes against the Polish nation).^[5] There is a Polish military cemetery in the village.^[2]

References

1. Central Statistical Office (GUS) Population: Size and Structure by Administrative Division - (2007-12-31) (in Polish)
2. "Guźnia". GminaLowicz.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 24 July 2020.
3. Mazowsze w drugiej połowie XVI wieku ; Cz.1, Mapa, plany, Warszawa 1973, k. 4.
4. Jerzy Topolski, Rozwój latyfundium arcybiskupstwa gnieźnieńskiego od XVI do XVIII w., Poznań 1955, s. 42.
5. Maria Wardzyńska, Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion, IPN, Warsaw, 2009, p. 96 (in Polish)