Chwarszczany

Chwarszczany
—  Village  —
Templar chapel at Chwarszczany
Chwarszczany
Coordinates: 52°41′13″N 14°38′9″E / 52.68694°N 14.63583°E / 52.68694; 14.63583
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	West Pomeranian
County	Myślibórz
Gmina	Boleszkowice
Population	222

Chwarszczany [xfarʂˈt​͡ʂanɨ] (German: Quartschen) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Boleszkowice, within Myślibórz County, West Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-western Poland, close to the German border.^[1] It lies on the river Myśla, approximately 6 kilometres (4 mi) south-east of Boleszkowice, 32 km (20 mi) south-west of Myślibórz, and 82 km (51 mi) south of the regional capital Szczecin. It is located at the junction of voivodeship road 127 and national road 31. The village has a population of 222.

Chwarszczany Chapel

The origins of this chapel lie in the gift to the Knights Templar of 1,000 łany (1 łan is approxiamtely 17 hectares) by Władysław Odonic, the Prince of Wielkopolska in 1232.^{[citation needed]} This land was in the Kostrzyn region and centred on Chwarszczany. This donation fulfilled more than simply religious reasons, as it provided a safeguard in a borderland and enabled the settlement of the area under German Law. In 1234 Barnim I, the Duke of Pomerania gave the Templars a further 200 łany, the centred around Dargomyśl. It is not known where the Templars of Chwarszczany came from but it may have been the Silesian commandery in Oleśnica Mała. In 1241 the property portfoloio of the Templars of Chwarszczany was expanded with the addition Lubno and Oborzany, donated by Włast, a Silesian magnate. By the middle of the 13th century, the Brandenburg margraves of the Ascanian dynasty gained control of the Chwarszczany property. Following disputation, in 1261 an agreement was reached between the Templars and the margraves: the Templars ceded rights to a commandery in Myślibórz, and gave up lands situated by the road from Kostrzyn to Gorzów. In return they received confirmation of the possession of Chwarszczany with ten villages with the addition of the village of Kaleńsko.

In 1286 Otto VI, Margrave of Brandenburg entered the monastery in Chwarszczany, giving the commandery greater significance. In the 1290s Bernhard von Eberstein, the commander of Chwarszczany, became the Templar preceptor of Poland, the New March, Bohemia and Moravia. There is a reference to the sale of the village of Cychry to the Frankfurt upon Oder townspeople in 1308. This is the last mention of the Templars of Chwarszczany, with the chapel being taken over by the Hospitallers following the suppression of the Templars.

References

1. ^ "Central Statistical Office (GUS) - TERYT (National Register of Territorial Land Apportionment Journal)" (in Polish). 2008-06-01. http://www.stat.gov.pl/broker/access/prefile/listPreFiles.jspa. 

• The Templar Chapel in Chwarszczany accessed 10 August 2008

Coordinates: 52°41′13″N 14°38′9″E / 52.68694°N 14.63583°E / 52.68694; 14.63583