Golczowice, Prudnik County
Golczowice, additional name in German: Golschowitz, is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Głogówek, within Prudnik County, Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It is situated in the historical region of Prudnik Land.
As of 31 December 2022, the village's population numbered 93 inhabitants. A significant portion of them belongs to the German minority in Poland.
Geography
The village is located in the southern part of Opole Voivodeship, close to the Czech Republic–Poland border. It is situated in the historical Prudnik Land region, as well as in Upper Silesia. It lies in the Silesian Lowlands. The National Register of Geographical Names for 2025 classified Golczowice as a hamlet of Zawada.Etymology
In Topographisches Handbuch von Oberschlesien, published in 1865, Felix Triest noted the village's German name as Golschowitz, and its Polish name as Golczowice. In 1936, Nazi administration of the German Reich changed the village's name to Goldenau.Following the Second World War, the Polish name Golczowice was introduced by the Commission for the Determination of Place Names on 1 October 1948. As Gmina Głogówek gained the bilingual status on 1 December 2009, the government introduced an additional German name for the village: Golschowitz.
History
Traces of human presence in the area of the present-day village of Golczowice, confirmed by archaeological research, date back to the Stone Age and the Bronze Age.The village's name was first recorded in a document published in 1419. There was a folwark in the village. The village was completely abandoned in the 16th century due to the wars and riots that occurred in the previous century. According to a document signed on 10 December 1595 in Wrocław, there was an inn and a pond in Golczowice, which belonged to the Głogówek estate.
In 1724, a wooden Saint Anne church was built in Golczowice. Until 1742, the village was a part of in the Habsburg Empire. After the First Silesian War, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia was incorporated into Prudnik County. The wooden church burnt down in 1764. noted in 1784 that Golczowice belonged to the Schaffgotsch family.
A new Saint Anne church was constructed in the years 1843–1848 in a place where victims of the 1831 cholera epidemic were buried. The villages of Golczowice and Zawada had their own sigil. In the 19th century, there was a watermill in Golczowice.
After the First World War, a monument dedicated to people from Golczowice, Zawada, Czartowice, But, Mucków, and Sysłów, who died in the war, was erected in the village. Only a portion of Prudnik County participated in the 1921 Upper Silesia plebiscite, which was supposed to determine ownership of the Province of Upper Silesia between Germany and Poland. Golczowice found itself in the eastern part of the county, within the plebiscite area. In the end, the area of Prudnik, along with Golczowice, remained in Germany.
During the Second World War, on 18 March 1945, the Soviet Red Army encircled several German divisions in the area of Golczowice. On 19 March, a command post of the Wehrmacht was set up in the village. Following the Second World War, from March to May 1945, Prudnik County was controlled by the Soviet military commandant's office. On 11 May 1945, it was passed on to the Polish administration. Autochthonous inhabitants of Golczowice, who either spoke Silesian or knew Polish, were allowed to remain in the village.