Commune of Zdzieszowice

Location: in the eastern part of the Poviat of Krapkowice, at the foot of the Mount St. Anna and the shipping lane on the Odra river; 15 km from an exit from the international highway A-4: Berlin - Wroclaw - Krakow - Kiev, at the national way No. 45 Opole-Racibórz and the railway line Krakow - Wroclaw.
It borders communes of: Gogolin, Leśnica, Kędzierzyn-Koźle, Krapkowice, Strzelce Opolskie, Reńska Wieś and Walce.
Administrative composition– town of Zdzieszowice and 6 villages of: Januszkowice, Jasiona, Krępna, Oleszka, Rozwadza and Żyrowa.
Area: 57 km2
Number of inhabitants: 17 800 inhabitants, whereof 13 624 live in the town. The average density of population amounts 294 persons per 1 km2.

It is worth seeing and visiting…

   «•»  Village of Krępna
At bustling way from Krapkowice to Kędzierzyn, near the Odra River it is worth stopping in one of the oldest villages of the commune of Zdzieszowice - in Krępna.
For the first time, it was registered in c.a. 1300 as Crampna. Etymology of its name is connected with an old Polish word krępa which means dry hill, raised over marsh, what would correspond to topography of that area. Some people derive that name from catch their victims (rich buyers going with the commercial track to Koźle) and to cramp them. Archaeological research did in the interwar- period in Krępna showed that people settled there already in the Neolithic age (c.a. 4000-1800 BC.).
Certainly, it could be thanks to the life-giving river of Odra and the former trade route, joining Koźle with Opole.

Coming to Krępna from Krapkowice you can turn left and set on through a forest to Jasiona. There you can come up on the so-called green cross, founded by Dorota and Jan Smiatków c.a. 1890, and renewed in 70s of the XX century by inhabitants of Krępna. Behind a rail station, at the way to Jasiona another magnificent cross stands from 1935 a founder of which was Filip Daniel, at first an inhabitant of Krępna, and afterwards Jasiona. He hasn’t lived to see modern times. He was killed in 1944 during the raid of coke- plant in Zdzieszowice.
In turn, going with the main road through Krępna, among lime-trees and at pond a cross welcomes us, history of which reaches pre-war times. Its founder was the contemporary village administrator Johann Lipka. In 1936, a monument of victims of the World War I was placed there. After its destruction in 1969, for the second time the cross was put. Nearby, there also is a building of the old school from 1861, developed in the 80s.
In the center of the village at the main way on the left hand (going from Krapkowice), for over 150 years, on a parcel presented by Franciszek Malik, a little chapel in the Neo-Roman style stands among lime-trees with a folk crucifix and a picture of St. Apostles Peter and Paul. Until a church was built it had fulfilled a role of the local belfry, announcing death of some close relatives or fire in the village. Through tens of years, May-services also took place there, rosary- in October and fair- masses. Opposite the little chapel on the right side it is worth looking into the newly built in years 1983 - 1985 branch- church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul. Just behind a bridge there is another cross from 1930, founded by the member of the III Order - Wilhelm Gołąbek who in 1933 went on a pilgrimage to Rome and was accepted to an audience by the Holy Father Pius XI. Leaving Krępna toward the neighboring village of Rozwadza, on the left hand of the main road a wayside- cross from 1894, founded by the smith Jersch, bids us good-bye.
If we have enough time, you can turn right, into a field- narrow path running to a sluice on the Odra River. There we come upon the thankful, wayside- pistillary little chapel of St. Roch (protecting all, what lives before pest, called “murrain”). Most likely it was built, when in the Poviat of Strzelce, c.a. 1866 a cholera epidemic raged and decimated people and the cattle in the whole village. When the epidemic stopped, inhabitants founded picture of St. Roch and put him behind the former grange. There they gathered their own cattle and vowed that every year would come with procession around the village, asking for keeping them out of „murrain air” and other natural disasters. And today, on the day of saints Peter and Paul (29th June) you can come to Krępna, to take part to the procession, called the procession „around fields”.
When we reach at the old sluice „Krępa” on the Odra River, built in 1894, you could move to the newly built dam with hydroelectric power station or to the old river-bed of the Odra River, to look on peculiar specimens of river fauna and flora, and also to take a walk with the charming osier willow avenue

   «•»  Village of Rozwadza
Going still toward Kędzierzyn, in the short time we get to the village of Rozwadza which, so as Krępna, is one of the oldest villages in the commune of Zdzieszowice and lies also on the old trade route joining Koźle with Opole. For the first time, its name was registered c.a. 1300 as Rosvatzha or Rozwadse, earlier appears in records of the Cistercian from Jemielnica chronicle in 1282. Most likely, it descends from an old Polish name Rozwad (from1155).
At the nearest cross-road you ought to turn left, to get to the centre of the village. On the left hand you can stop on a parking space at a parsonage and walk tens of meters, to bow to saint Jan Nepomucen - a patron of the local church. The temple was built by believers in years 1969-1971 on a place of the old barn, offered by the family Jońca. On the opposite side of the way, there is a small, brick little chapel with a wooden figure of the Czech Saint.
At the way running through the village at the following crossing you can see a brick- cross with a little chapel of God’s Mother from 1905 with an inscription: Blessed who in Lord die in German and Polish. Just leaving Rozwadza towards Zdzieszowice, on the right side, on the not large hill a little evangelic church of lime stone with red brick bids us good-bye. It was built in 1888 by the count Albert von Schwerder (also a builder of a palace). His grave is found near the church. Today, the little church is a private property of one of the inhabitants of the village. The neighboring way conducts us into areas of the strongly worn out palace in the English style from 1861.

   «•»  Town of Zdzieszowice


You can get to the comparatively young town of Zdzieszowice which municipal rights obtained only in 1967, with ways running from: Krapkowice, Kędzierzyn, Gogolin and Leśnica; also by train of the PKP line Opole - Kędzierzyn. Earlier, it was a little well-known village, because the life of the inhabitants was concentrated around the ancient settlement, close to the Odra River, of grateful name Solownia, originating surely from salt which along with the other goods, was delivered by land from Upper Silesia and reloaded on rafts flowing Odra to Opole, Wroclaw and Stettin. At present at the place, called Łeg Zdzieszowicki (rich into the unique specimens of river fauna and flora) there is a ferry passage with the hand drive, built in 1903 to the village of Mechnica and localities situated on left hand of Odra. Moving with the narrow path from the ferry passage to the main road, on the right side we pass by a monument To Flood Victims 1997 founded by Natalia and Jan Płonka.
Good to know that the local name Zdzieszowice descends from a name Zdziesz, being a short version of the XII century name Zdziesław. The first mention about Zdzieszowice proceeds from 1405: Zduieszowicz, following about 1484: Zdziechowicz. Under influence of German Deschowitz in 1845 the secondary form Dzieszowice/ Deschowitz appeared which in 1936 was changed into Odertal (Valley of Odra).
In Middle Ages that village went the rounds. Since 1615 its owners were the following count’s families: von Redern, von Promnitz, Colonna (from the half of the XVII century), von Nostiz and Jockisch (after the Napoleonic wars until the end of the XIX century). In 1845 the locality obtained a railway connection with Opole and Kędzierzyn (an integral part of the railway line Berlin - Wroclaw - Vienna). Undertaken in the 2nd half of the XIX century trials of industrialization of the village (lime kiln, brick-yard, alcohol distillery, sugar factory) fell through due to lack of the local raw material. From those times originates the oldest monument in Zdzieszowice, the XIX century chapel-belfry with late-Baroque sculpture of Jan Nepomucen from the XVIII century which is found in the old part of the town called the Village, at present at Chrobrego Street.
Only construction of the cokery (of an initiative of the count von Schaffgotsch), in years 1929-1932 it contributed to rise of the rank of the locality and to increase in number of inhabitants. So, construction of a church was a necessity, because a little church of St. Anthony from Padua built at home in 1920 (today the municipal office is placed there), being with a property of priest Hawlitschka - the parish-priest from Leśnica, it could not already contain all believers. So far, Zdziszowice’s inhabitants went on foot 5 km to the parish church in Leśnica. From initiative of the priest Frederyk Czernik, in 1935 construction of new, uni-aisle church of St. Anthony began (at the Pokoju Street), of lime stone which was finished in 1937. An engineer Felix Hinssen from Berlin made a project of it. A curiosity is the fact that among paintings of figures of saints and believers on the wall of the semicircular presbytery there is an image of the countess Johanna von Schaffgotsch, a wife of Johann Anton who financially supported construction of the temple. During the Zdzieszowice raid in 1944 the temple was seriously damaged. After the war it was rebuilt, and in the 60s its interior was renewed.
Near the Zdzieszowice’s housing estate Piastów II you can stumble across ruins of the manor-house of the German-language writer - countesses Valeska von Bethusy-Huc who lived in Zdzieszowice in years 1869 - 1905.
Having passed a railway crossing, we can turn right and move toward Leśnica. There, on the right side there is one of the most modern coke- plant in Poland and in Europe. During the world war II due to production of: coke, synthetic benzine, light and heavy oils the Coke- plant was an important strategic point. Because of that during the air raid of allied- armies it was partly destroyed. After the war in the 50s, the plant was constantly rebuilt and modernized, because to Zdzieszowice as to Mecca people came and settled from all around Poland. Today, the cokery consists of ten batteries, and the eleventh is under construction. Near the coke- plant the monument of the Silesian Insurgent from 1981 is visible from afar, designed by the Opolskie sculptor Jan Borowczak (an author of a statue at the Wolności Square in Opole).
Going from Zdzieszowice onto the Mount St. Anna, on the left hand side of the main road a little chapel of Three Brothers bids us good-bye. A local legend tells that a father and three sons went on the thirty-year war. However, first they knelt down under an oak, whereon a picture of the Saint Family hung, they prayed and agreed that when the war was over, and all they would survive, then would meet in the same place. So it happened. Thanking God for rescuing their lives, they decided to build there a votive little chapel, and place inside a picture showing 3 praying men kneeling under an oak. Under the picture, there is the characteristic inscription: Thanks to God’s mercy we returned, me, your father and you, my sons, from the war. Having recognized its horror, we beg the Queen of the Peace and Saint Anna, our Patron, so that bad luck wouldn’t meet our fatherland anymore.


   «•»  Village of Januszkowice
The last village situated on a trade route Opole - Koźle, within the commune of Zdzieszowice, is the village of Januszkowice. For the first time was noted in the form Januschkowitz in 1532, while its name descends from a name Januszek (from 1394).
An integral part of Januszkowice is Wielmierzowice, lying near the main way. In its centre there is an old little chapel-belfry from 1927, built by Franciszek Sowa. It played the same function as the little chapel in Krępna. Besides, every day a bell announced the beginning of the day, the noon - the time of the Angelus and the evening - the time of the evening- prayer. Near on the right side, at a way running to an old mansion, there is a wayside brick cross (founded by an old servant Jacob Kampa who served at contemporary owners of Wielmierzowice’s mansion - Schûller) with a German inscription which after translation sounds: Be faithful until the death, and you will reach the crown of life (the eternal happiness). Turning right we can get to the ruins of Wielmierzowice’s mansion. In turn, going towards former Mine of Mineral Raw materials, it is worth viewing a little chapel of St. Barbara (the unrealized tomb of owners of the mansion from the beginning of the XX century- the family Kabicki from Otmuchów) and a wayside- cross placed not far. The oldest inhabitants of the village tell that people died of the pest were buried there, raged in the 2nd half of the XIX century.
When we enter Januszkowice, it is impossible not to pay attention to a figure of Saint John Nepomucen placed on the left side o the main road which was moved from flood area into just that place after the great flood in 1843. In the center of the village it is proper to look into the local little chapel- belfry and to an old, postCistercian church (changed onto granary, and today on a barn) „on Holes” from the turn of the XVII/XVIII centuries. You can also stop at a cross at an outlet of the way from Januszkowice to Kędzierzyn. It commemorates the death of a Cistercian monk who defended attacked buyers, migrating with a trade track from Opole to Koźle. If in the center of the village we turn left towards Krasowa, then you should necessarily enter a church of St. Blaise (a patron of pharyngopathies and ear illnesses) from 1934 and stop at a cross with a little chapel of Mary from 1900, commemorating the death of the only daughter of the family Hyla.
For about 10 years, the recreational-rest & landscape bead is a water reservoir , being an integral part of the agricultural tourism farm „ Silver- Lake”, situated 2 km from the centre of the village on so-called „Lesiany” ). Near, at the Odra River, you can see the second hydroelectric power station.

   «•»  Village of Żyrowa, situated partly on the area of The Landscape Park. „The Mount St. Anna”
Going a way toward Dąbrówka and Gogolin, we get to the picturesquely situated village of Żyrowa which similarly to Rozwadza and Krępna, was for the first time mentioned in 1302 in a bulla of the pope Boniface VIII as Zirova, tithing to the Cistercian cloister from Jemielnica. Its name descends from a name Żyro (from 1198). German scientists take out that name from a plant hare’s żyr (hare’s przynęt) which is often met thereabouts.
At the entrance a board greets us informing about granting the village in the prestige International Competition European Prize of Renovation of Village in 2004. Going the main street through village, on the right side, we pass a wayside- thankful cross, raised after the World War II by the family Steindor, on a place of a wooden cross from 1918, commemorating killed during the World War I. Near, also on the right side, a brick column little chapel stands with a picture of God’s Mother. Most likely it was raised in 1807. When the Napoleon soldiers besieged a fortress in Koźle, and some of them quartered in a cloister on the Mount Saint Anna, one of recruits died on the ground of Żyrowa. On a place of his burial, later on a little chapel was built. In the center of the village, on the left hand, it is worth stopping at a little chapel of Saint John Nepomucen - a patron of good confession, bridges and defender against flood. As a priest he was murdered by the Czech king Wenceslaus IV and drowned in the river of Moldau (Weltawa) because he had not revealed a secret of confession of his wife. His image we can also find in a niche of an external wall of a presbytery of a local affiliated church of St. Nicholas. If we will turn near that little chapel into the Domańskiego street, then soon we reach so-called Goat’s- Square - not very large traffic circle with a monument of Goat and so-called „water-carrier”, that is to say with a manual cart with a barrel in which almost 170 years inhabitants of the village carried water from the nearby little chapel --„studzionka”. In the name the former occupation is hidden – the goats’ farming which peasant-workers dealt with many years ago. Every day they gathered goats together from the village into that place and pastured furtively on nearby meadows. A local cemetery is also situated nearby; there are two chapels - new, mortuary (1991) and old, cemetery-one in the neoclassical style from the 1st half of the XIX century.

From the Goat’s- Square you can move with a bicycle path to Rozwadza. Deep inside the forest we get to so-called krampskie Forelle, that is to say water holes in which the count von Francken-Sierstorpff – owner of Żyrowa at the beginning of the XX century dealt with fishery of trout (German- Forelle).
However, the best is to turn back to the centre of the village and stop at the spreading emperor’s oak, planted in remembrance of a stay in Żyrowa of the German emperor William II in 1911. In its shadow, a grindstone from a windmill was placed, commemorating a jubilee of 700-year of our village, celebrated in 2002. In the neighborhood of the oak there is the only one in Opolskie, round, the dual-function little chapel-called studzionka, raised at the beginning of the XIX century. Just nearby, on two niggerheads there are commemorative bronze boards: first one - celebrating the jubilee of 700-year of Żyrowa, and second one - to commemorate winning the laurel the most beautiful Opolskie Village 2002 in the Voivodeship Competition Renovation of Village and an honor prize in the International Competition European Prize of Renovation of Village 2004.
On the left hand there is almost hundred- year old primary schoolhouse. Since 1987 there is a regional room in which pupils have collected priceless souvenirs of past times, old exhibition goods, typical for Upper Silesia cottage, multi-cultural certificate of history of that earth.
From the emperor’s oak it’s good to leave toward a castle tower with an antique gateway to a palace, close by which there is situated the oldest building in the village - an old personage from the XIV century. When we cross a gateway early Baroque palace - park complex appears before our eyes from 1st half of the XVII century, raised by counts von Gaschin, (founders of the church, the cloister and Calvary on the Mount St. Anna), and rebuilt by last owners - the family von Francken-Sierstorpff.

Palatial complex is surrounded by an extensive park of total surface 11, 5 ha. It is worth paying attention there to the unique specimens of flora, such as: maiden-hair-tree, European beech, rambling on it English ivy, sycomore maple, sweet-chestnut tree, Japan quince, eastern hemlock or common Douglas fir. Early in spring the park covers with a carpet of flourishing protected plants. The most popular are: anemone gamekeeper and yellow, snowdrop and twinleaf squill.
In the neighborhood of the palace there is a Gothic- baroque-, postCistercian chapel of St. Nicholas from 1300. In the side- chapel there is a tomb of last owners of the palace - Johannes and Mary von Francken-Sierstorpff and their son Edwin Victor, killed at the front of the World War I. However, the most precious movable ancient monuments are two pictures of: St. Floriana and St. Joseph with Bambino Jesus on his hand, from the II half of the XVIII century, painted by the Silesian painter Frances Sebastini (coming from Czech) living in Głogówek. At the church, you can also find paintings of ancestral coats of arms of three following owners of Żyrowa: the family Żyrowski (in years 1447 - 1629), the family von Gaschin (in years 1631 - 1852) and the family von Francken-Sierstorpff (in years 1889 - 1945). Before the church, on the left hand on the XVIII-century basement with the Gaszyn’s coat of arms a figure of Christ the King stands, founded in 2000 by an anonymous inhabitant of Żyrowa, and behind the church among thujas, there is the most beautiful sepulchral monument of Madonna with Bambino of white marble, raised in 1928 post mortem of the about three-year-old count’s daughter Elizabeth Christinae von Francken-Sierstorpff. In the neighborhood of the church you can see three monuments of nature: over 220-year-old sycomore maple and 270-year-old, cut, small-leaved linden „witness” covered with a little roof and an avenue of berry yew. On East side, there is a palaceside grange, today a private property, intended for farming Hungarian stags with large antlers.
Behind the church it is proper to turn left to the nearby sanctuary „Lesisko”, situated on the area Of the Landscape Park the „Mount Saint Anna”. Over one-hundred-year-old beeches bewitch us with their own beauty, also karst barrancas – cutting the slopes of the Chełmski Hogback, as and numerous sorts of plants, including till 6 being under protection: lesser periwinkle, English ivy, mezereon wolf’s phloem, lily-of-the-valley, sweet woodruff and asarabacca. Equally rich is animality. Over 50 sorts of birds live there (among them: ordinary buzzard, goshawk, different sorts of woodpecker) and numerous sorts of mammalia (stags, roe-deer, wild boar, foxes, squirrels, martens). Above the sanctuary, there is an old grange „Forester”, called Waldhofem (today- ruins). From there, it is already not far to a little chapel of St. Theresa of Bambino Jesus (raised - as a legend tells- by Leopold von Gaschin), restored by the group of parishioners from Żyrowa and devoted to the use in 2004, and what is most important, up the Mount St. Anna – a pilgrimage centre of inhabitants of Upper Silesia.

   «•»  Village of Oleszka, situated in The Landscape Park „the Mount St. Anna”
Near Żyrowa, a little, village of Oleszka is situated with over 18th-century- tradition, the name of which similarly to Jasiona, descends from name of tree alder(olcha, olsza), while Oleszka means small settlement among alders. Its name for the first time was mentioned in a bulla of the pope Boniface VIII in 1302 among many villages which tithing to Cistercians from Jemielnica. Entering Oleszka we are greeted by: among lime-trees a quadrilateral little chapel, raised in honor of killed in the thirty-year war (1618-1648) and the commemorative obelisk situated there on the occasion of 700-year jubilee of the village. In the center of the village there is found neo-baroque chapel of Visitation of Sacred Mary Virgin, erected of close by the former well on a hill most likely in 1875, whenas from Oleszka the first fair- procession left onto the Mount St. Anna. In 1925 it was rebuilt and enriched with aisles and a turret.
It is proper to come up a little bit higher and look into a private botanic garden of the family of Gabriela and Joachim Porada. Lots of plants and decorative flowers put into a composition of an old garden make that place real tourist attraction. In the center of Oleszka you can turn left toward a highway and go onto so-called „Ligocka Mount” (326 m above sea level.) to the rigorous sanctuary „Ligota Dolna”.

   «•»  Village of Jasiona
From Oleszka we move with a Poviat way- to Jasiona (Jesiona) which is an oldest village in the commune of Zdzieszowice. You can also get there by the train PKP line Opole - Kędzierzyn (a railway station is situated in a forest, 2 km from the village), and also with a way from Gogolin, turning from the rout Krapkowice - Strzelce Opolskie in the village of Dąbrówka. For the first time it was mentioned in 1285 as Jassona, and its name descends from a name of tree jesion (ash).
However, first traces of colonization on that area proceed from the period of Roman influence, i.e. first ages Anno Domini.
On the cross-road Oleszka - Jasiona - Żyrowa we pass by a pilgrimage cross founded by the present parish-priest of the parish of Jasiona - priest. Franciszek Augustyniok. In the past there was a pistillar little chapel with a small picture of Holy Trinity, commemorating tragical death of two local brothers. On a turning to the village, at the cross-roads, leading from Jasiona to Krępna there is not large, brick- little chapel with a picture of God’s Mother of Czestochowa. The oldest inhabitants of the village tell it was by the old Baltazar Bochyna, to move away evil spirits.
In the center of the village it is proper to visit antique, neo-baroque parish church of St. Mary Magdalene, the most precious antique object of Gothic architecture on Opolskie Silesia and in the commune of Zdzieszowice. Through many years it was the parish not only for inhabitants of Jasiona, Żyrowa, Oleszka, Dąbrówka and Zakrzow, but also Obrowiec, Rozwadza and Krępna. In the present shape the temple of Jasiona was raised in 1911 by parishioners and the owner of the palace of Żyrowa Johannes von Francken-Sierstorpff. However, it was built in the XIV century. Remaining bi-civery presbytery of the previous church proves it. The Gothic polychromy from the 2nd half of the XIV century preserved on walls is the most precious, presenting the passion cycle (discovered in1912). Also the baroque- interior decorations of the temple deserve our attention.
From there we move with the main road toward Gogolin. On the right side we pass a wayside- cross with a picture of Christ painted on a sheet metal, raised c.a. 1919 by two comrades: the old Bienia and the carpenter Plichta. It was to warn people against accidents which happened on that turning of a way. Leaving from the village, a thankful little chapel of St. Theresa with Bambino Jesus bids us good-bye, situated on the left hand side, raised by Joseph Namysło who wished to thank for lucky return from the World War I.
If you wish to calm down, you can turn right just opposite the little chapel of St. Theresa, into Polna street and move onto Heliosz to the newly built Recollections House with a beautiful garden – arboretum.