Neulimburg - Die Siedlung im Wald

The village of Blota was founded in 1771. On Prussian orders, German settlers from the County of Limburg in Hesse set off with their carts, tools and livestock. This is also where the village’s German name, Neulimburg, comes from. Initially, 300 hectares of woodland were cleared and the resulting land distributed amongst the 30 or so farmers. The loamy soil was heavy and not very fertile. To improve yields, a three-field crop rotation system was adopted. Cereal crops were grown on two fields, whilst the third was left fallow. Later, by official order, potatoes and sugar beet were cultivated, and cattle breeding was also taken up. Straw became an export commodity for the army. In the second half of the 18th century, arable farming was intensified and the cultivation of fodder crops such as clover and fodder beet began. Vegetables were grown in the gardens behind the houses, whilst cows grazed in the front gardens. The village was a linear settlement. The houses were made of wood and thatched. Two rooms and a kitchen with washing facilities were separated from the servants’ quarters by a corridor. The corridor led round the back to the stables and the cellar.

History Following the emancipation of the peasants in 1806, farmers were permitted to sell their surplus produce in the towns. With the Napoleonic Wars that followed shortly afterwards and the associated food shortages, Blota entered a period of economic prosperity that only came to an end with the drought-stricken summer of 1846. Animal feed became scarce, and in the same year Blota also fell victim to the cholera epidemic. Social problems also grew. In March 1848, a clash took place in the nearby town of Szydlowice between demonstrators and the Prussian Army, resulting in fatalities. Four major floods struck the village: on 10 June 1829, 6 March 1830 and 22 July 1834 (this flood is documented in Raabe’s chronicles). The worst flood, however, occurred on 12 July 1997. A cross stands at the crossroads between Blota and Dobrzyn as a memorial to this last flood. Among the harshest winters were those of 1929 (-41°C) and 1935 (-35°C).

The Expulsion The greatest tragedy, however, occurred after the Second World War. On the morning of Saturday, 10 August 1946, a representative of the Polish authorities went from house to house and ordered the residents to leave their homes and report to the village school within an hour, carrying no more than 30 pounds of luggage. All the villagers were transported by lorry to Brieg. At the former mental hospital on Kamienna Street, the militia carried out checks and then sent the people to the railway station, where they were loaded onto cattle lorries. In each lorry, there was a bucket of soup as provisions. The Germans from Blota did not know where their journey would take them, but they sensed that they would lose their homeland. They spent their first night in West Germany in Einersheim. To this day, they meet there regularly for a historical picnic. The village of Blota was resettled by Poles from the village of Malowody in the former Polish district of Podhaje (Tarnopol Province).

The land reveals its past Very close to the road leading to Blota lay the extensive Liegniz estate. It was situated north-west of the Kellerberg castle settlement and belonged to the Sobieraj family, a family of knightly nobility. The Kellerberg castle settlement had a rectangular layout, a steep approach and a moat. During excavations in 1970, nine fragments of pottery dating from the 13th to the 14th century were unearthed. At the highest point of the castle are the remains of cellars belonging to the hunting lodge dating from 1614. This hunting lodge belonged to Duke Jan Krystian and Duchess Dorota Sybilla, and its main attraction is a chair decorated with hunting scenes. The woods around Ryczyna were used by the ducal couple for duck hunting. Ryczyna also had a castle. It was circular in shape and was built in the 12th century. A 360-metre-long embankment surrounded the castle, next to which stood a guardhouse and the small town of Lipki. The town’s name derives from the word ‘rykia’. In 1109, the imperial army of the German King Henry V, which was on its way to Kraków to subjugate Poland, was halted here. Archaeologists have excavated four settlements lying one on top of the other here, which are thought to be the result of floods that razed the fortress to the ground in the 14th century. 300 metres west of Blota lay the old Slavic village of Ottaczki, which in Old Slavic means: ‘belonging to the village of Dobrzyn Ostrow’. The German settlers called it Ottock. According to Eister, this village was first mentioned in 1252, when Duke Bolesław III gifted it, together with an inn, to the knight Ulrich Seveus. During excavations in 1970, pottery was found suggesting that this settlement formed a sort of buffer zone between the village of Blota and the forest. The settlement was destroyed by German settlers in the 18th century. Today, the settlement of Zamcze is situated on the same site – an almost square plateau 2.7 metres high.

Village legends and traditions According to an old legend, the pond behind the village of Blota had been bewitched by a ‘white lady’ hanging out washing on a line. This figure was seen by a settler named Lontke, who was so terrified that he fell over and broke his leg. Next to the path to Ryczyn lay the so-called Gallows Cave. It was here that a landowner had his daughter’s lover hanged. According to legend, the body vanished and a pond appeared in its place. Another legend tells of female dwarves who dance in the pastures at dusk and of burning carts of straw. All these legends drove the inhabitants of Blota back into their homes in the early evening. A medieval tradition of welcoming spring has been preserved in Blota. The children visit the farmers and sing a folk song: ‘Red dress, beautiful green lime tree. Let’s go into the forest and find something; a bird that heralds spring. The mistress is coming and we shall be given gifts.’