Rajsko, Oświęcim County

For other places with the same name, see Rajsko.

Rajsko
Village
Palace in Rajsko Palace in Rajsko
Coat of arms of Rajsko Coat of arms
Rajsko
Coordinates:
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Lesser Poland
County	Oświęcim
Gmina	Gmina Oświęcim
Elevation	240 m (790 ft)
Population	1,440

Rajsko [ˈrai̯skɔ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Oświęcim, within Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. It lies approximately 7 kilometres (4 mi) south-west of Oświęcim and 55 km (34 mi) west of the regional capital Kraków.

The village has a population of 1,440.

History

The village was first mentioned in 1272 as Raysko in a Latin document when the village was endowed by Władysław of Opole to Herman Surnagel in order to resettle it under German law.

Politically it belonged then to the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz and the Castellany of Oświęcim, which was in 1315 formed in the process of feudal fragmentation of Poland into the Duchy of Oświęcim, ruled by a local branch of Silesian Piast dynasty. In 1327 the duchy became a fee of the Kingdom of Bohemia. In 1457 Jan IV of Oświęcim agreed to sell the duchy to the Polish Crown, and in the accompanying document issued on 21 February the village was mentioned as Raysko.

The territory of the Duchy of Oświęcim was eventually incorporated into Poland in 1564 and formed Silesian County of Kraków Voivodeship. Upon the First Partition of Poland in 1772 it became part of the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia. After World War I and fall of Austria-Hungary it became part of Poland. It was annexed by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II, and afterwards it was restored to Poland.