Janowice

History abstract

The oldest source records of the village, in which brothers Boksa and Jan from Janowice were mentioned, date back to 1353-1355. The village was probably already then divided into two estates - eastern and western, situated on two sides of a stream flowing through the centre of the village. Numerous mentions, mainly in Cracow's land registers, leave no doubt that Janowice had two, and it seems that periodically more owners. In 1404-1430 Zbyszko from Janowice of the Strzegom coat of arms was mentioned, from 1411 together with Pietrasz of the Jastrzębiec coat of arms, who, in 1419 gave his part of Janowice to Wierzbięta from Branice of the Gryf coat of arms. In 1460 one of the heirs was Jan Janowski of the Strzegom coat of arms, and in 1525 most or all of the estates in the village were collected by Rafał Janowski, the governor of the Wieliczka mine. The first information about a mill in the village comes from 1411, while in 1469 there were already two, which was confirmed several years later by Jan Długosz in "Liber beneficiorum". The oldest record of an inn, on the other hand, appears in a court note from 1451. Janowice was not founded under German law. Długosz noted the lack of measured kmiecy lans in the village. In 1564-1581, Jan Mstowski of the Drużyna coat of arms, and in 1564-1595, the members of the Gładysz family were mentioned as one of the owners of the estate. In the second half of the 17th century, there was a conflict between the then owners of the village - the royal secretary and the Cracow councillor - and the authorities of Wieliczka, because of the employment of runaway peasants from Janowice in the Wieliczka mines. In the same century two main parts of the Janowice estate were merged and the eastern manor farm was liquidated. In 1759 the village was already owned by the Potocki family. In the 19th century, the inhabitants of the village were poor, mostly illiterate. In 1896 a school was opened in the village and the first teacher, Franciszka Eliza Siemieńska, arrived. The two world wars were periods of wander for the inhabitants, many of whom did not return. In 1945-1969, the headmistress of the school was its later patron, Zofia Stryszowska. In 1981 the authorities granted permission to build a church in Janowice. The temple was consecrated and the parish in Janowice was established in 1993. A year later, the construction of a new school complex was completed.