Articles --> Ziemia Łęczycka

The territorial scope of the catalogue

The scope of this catalogue includes, according to the Atlas Historyczny Polski^[1] (Historical Atlas of Poland), the historical region of Ziemia Łęczycka in the form that emerged in the Middle Ages and survived practically unchanged until the partition of Poland in the 18th century.

The area of Ziemia Łęczycka or Łęczycki Province is located between Wielkopolska (from the west), Ziemia Sieradzka (from the south), Kujawy (from the north), and Mazowsze (from the northeast and east).

The administrative and ownership structures, the settlement system (network of towns and villages), and the communication and trade routes, which constitute the functional basis of this region, have developed through the ages. Although settlers did not participate in this development from its inception, starting from the middle of the 18th century, the number new villages founded by the Dutch was considerable and had an impact on the economy of Ziemia Łęczycka. The last settlements were still being founded in the 19th century, although by this time the majority of settlers were of German origin.

An analysis of cartographic sources indicates that a large number of the villages established by the settlers were founded in the 18th century. Detailed maps from the end of the 18th and the first half of the 19th centuries enabled me to survey the region in a few chronological sections.

Footnotes
^[1] AHP, Województwo sieradzkie i województwo łęczyckie w drugiej poł. XVI w., red. H. Rutkowskiego, Warszawa 1998.