| Kamień Śląski | |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Total Type: | |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Type1: | Voivodeship |
| Subdivision Name1: | Opole |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | Krapkowice |
| Subdivision Type3: | Gmina |
| Subdivision Name3: | Gogolin |
| Coordinates: | 50.55°N 23°W |
| Pushpin Map: | Poland |
| Established Title: | First mentioned |
| Established Date: | 12th century |
| Pushpin Label Position: | right |
| Timezone: | CET |
| Utc Offset: | +1 |
| Timezone Dst: | CEST |
| Utc Offset Dst: | +2 |
| Population Total: | 1500 |
| Registration Plate: | OKR |
| Website: | http://www.kamienslaski.pl |
Kamień Śląski (pronounced as /pl/) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Gogolin, within Krapkowice County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland.[1] It lies approximately 9km (06miles) north-east of Gogolin, 130NaN0 north-east of Krapkowice, and 170NaN0 south-east of the regional capital Opole.
The main landmarks of are the local Kamień Śląski palace, which houses a sanctuary dedicated to Saint Hyacinth of Poland, who was born in the village, and the Saint Hyacinth church.
The oldest known mention of the village comes from the early-12th-century Gesta principum Polonorum, the oldest Polish chronicle.[2] It was mentioned as a seat of Polish ruler Bolesław III Wrymouth, both under the Latinized Polish name Kamencz and under the translated Latin name Lapis.[2] The name is of Polish origin and means "stone". It was part of Piast-ruled Poland, and was owned by the Odrowąż family.[2] Later on, it was also part of Bohemia, Prussia and Germany.
After the restoration of independent Poland after World War I in 1918, the local Polish majority made efforts to reintegrate the village with Poland. In the local elections in 1919, Poles won 11 out of 12 seats.[3] During the Second Silesian Uprising, the village was easily captured by the Poles.[3] Despite the Upper Silesia plebiscite of 1921, in which 55,3% voted in favour of rejoining Poland, the village was assigned to Germany, and soon afterwards it was the place of bloody fights during the Third Silesian Uprising.[3] A German unit committed a crime and murdered five Polish civilians.[3] In May 1921 the village passed between the fighting sides several times, before it was eventually seized by the Germans, while Polish insurgents retained control of the local railway station.[3] Fights ended on May 31, 1921, when French troops entered the village and established a neutral zone.[3] In the final stages of World War II, in January 1945, Soviet troops entered the village and plundered the St. Hyacinth chapel, and afterwards the village was restored to Poland.[2]
In 2012, the St. Hyacinth church in Kamień Śląski received church bells from the closed and demolished former Polish and Redemptorist monastery in Bochum, Germany.[4] [5] [6]