Pikulice

Pikulice. The view from the fort, "Łuczyce".

The village of Pikulice is located 5 km south from the district court and postal office of Przemysl. The village’s former name was Biliwka or Zelene. It is located by the stream Wisla that enters the Wiar River, just to the northeast. The village reveals the oldest traces of human habitation in south-eastern Poland, dating from 40,000-30,000 years ago.

The countryside of Pikuliczi (now Pikulice) originally belonged to Przemysl as part of one hundred fiefs donated in 1389 to the city by King Wladyslaw Jagiello. In the 15th century the village was incorporated by the starosta of Przemysl, this according to a document dated 29 October 1408. Wladyslaw Jagiello freed the residents of the village from all taxes and weights. In 1418, Ivan of Obuchow, the Rus starosta and the castellan of Szremsk, carried out royal orders to distinguish between the city outskirts and the villages Pikulice, Grochowce, Witoszyńce, and Koniuchy. Part of the village belonged to the Roman Catholic bishop of Przemysl up to the twentieth century. In 1565, there lived in Pikulice: 36 peasant families, one miller, two innkeepers, and one Orthodox priest. The oldest mention of a local parish church dates from 1507. In the sixteenth century there was also a Basilian monastery located there.

After the partition of 1772, the Austrian government sold Pikulice along with other surrounding villages to Count Ignacy Cetner (of Bakończyce). In 1785, under the Austrians, the population numbered 330: 291 Greek Catholics (88%), 25 Roman Catholics (8%), and 14 Jews (4%). To the south of Pikulice are the buildings which once were part of the manor estate owned by Princess Karolina Emilia Lubomirska, who was the last owner of the local assets.

For years, Pikulice had a manorial farm. By 1880, the population the village had nearly doubled, rising to 672 residents, including 105 Roman Catholics, and the remainder Greek Catholics. 29 residents were associated with the manorial estate. The Roman Catholic parish was in Przemysl, and the Greek Catholic parish was in Nehrybka. The village had a Greek Catholic church, and a one-room schoolhouse. The Greek Catholic church was originally a wooden structure built as early as 1830. The church was replaced by another wooden structure in 1841, and a masonry building in 1903. The church was named the Nativity of the BVM in 1879. It was demolished in the 1950s. The Roman Catholic neo-Gothic stone church and belfry were erected in 1912. It is the only church that remains today. On its facade is an emblem of the Polish eagle, the crest of the Lubomirski family, and the figure of Saint John the Baptist, who is the patron saint of Przemysl.

Artillery Barracks in Pikulice (early 20th century)

There is a monument erected in Pikulice honouring the memory of the soldiers of the Ukrainian Galician Army who, interned as prisoners of war by the Poles, died in 1919 to 1920 in the nearby camp. The former Austrian barracks in the years 1919-1924 served as detention center for Ukrainian soldiers from the army of the Ukrainian People's Republic. In 1921, the camp held 557 officers, 1,874 enlisted men, 100 women, and 35 children. The village itself included 151 houses and 875 inhabitants: 607 Greek Catholics (69%), 199 Roman Catholics (23%), and 68 Jews (8%). Several thousand of the prisoners died as a result of a typhoid epidemic and were buried in four mass graves in the Austrian war cemetery in the northern part of the countryside. In Communist times, the cemetery was destroyed, but reconstructed after 1990. In 2000, at the Ukrainian military cemetery, were buried 47 former UPA soldiers, previously exhumed from mass graves in Bircza and Usznej.

On a wooded hill south of the Pikulice are the ruins of the main fort GW-IV “Optyn”, built in 1880, and belonging to the outer ring of fortifications for Przemysl. To the west of the fort, are the remains of the auxiliary fort W-IIIa “Hermanowice”.

In 1938, the population of Pikulice numbered 747 Ukrainians.

When the German Army arrive in Przemysl in September 1939, the first mass executions of Jews took place between the16th and 19th of September, at several places in the city outskirts, including Pikulice.

The Ukrainian population was deported in the summer 1945 to Ukraine. On 15 November of that year Ukrainian partisans burned down most of the buildings. The remaining Ukrainians, some fifteen, were resettled in Western Poland in May 1947.

Ukrainian War Cemetery in Pikulice

Nehrybka (Poland)

The village of Nehrybka is located 4 km southeast from the center of Przemysl.

Historically, it was located on major trade routes stretching from the north and south of Przemysl, a situation that was advantageous for its growth. The lands of the village are crossed by rivers, by the Malinowski and Jawor streams, and to the east, the Wiar River. The flat terrain was beneficial for the development of agriculture. The nearby river since ancient times has provided residents with water, and also energy to run a mill. In addition, the Wiar River has served as a natural moat, which has helped defend its inhabitants against attacks from the east. Evidence of the attractiveness of Nehrybka's physical location is the dozens of archaeological sites scattered throughout its territory, including those of prehistoric settlements.

The name of Nehrybka first appeared in 1363. That date is linked to a certain James, an Orthodox priest. The next date, which confirms the existence of the village, is the year 1389, in which King Wladyslaw Jagiello granted the rights of Magdeburg law and one hundred Frankish fiefs to Przemyśl, starting from the borders of "Nehrzebka." The village was under Rus voivodeship, as confirmed by a document issued by King Michael Korybut Wiśniowiecki. The Rus origins of the village were confirmed by a stone pole inscribed in old Ruthenian, with an image of the Crucifixion, which stood before World War I, just seven minutes from the main road. The former location of the pole is likely to be near the present-day monument to the murdered Soviet and Italian prisoners of war from the Second World War. During the times when the Przemysl area was part of Kyivan Rus, Nehrybka and other nearby villages were known for their horse husbandry. The residents of this area from the middle ages had occupied themselves only in caring for the princely stables.

Under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1628), Nehrybka was part of the district of Przemysl. Przemysl was one of the four lands of Rus voivodeship, whose capital was Lviv. In 1651 the village was partly owned by the king, and partly belonged to the Przemysl chapter of the Latin rite. There is a record that there was a mill in Nehrybka in 1658. In 1674, a part of the village belonged to the royal property, and the second part to Pawel Nehrebecki. In the second half of the eighteenth century (1785), Nehrybka had a multi-ethnic character. Its population was 532 people, including 432 Greek Catholics (80%), 80 Roman Catholics (15%), and 29 Jews (5%).

Under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and, briefly, under the time of the Austrians, the bishops of Przemysl resided not in the city but 20 km away in Valiav on the San River. They would come to Przemysl for the celebration of important masses. At those times they would be accompanied by an episcopal Cossack regiment under the leadership of an elected otaman. The otaman would be selected from among the ranks of the Cossacks and would be confirmed by the bishop. The last episcopal Cossack otaman was named Khrobak. The Cossacks lived in the nearby village of Nehrybka. Some of the Cossacks resided permanently in the episcopal palace in Valiav. The Austrian Emperor Jozef II banned this institution, and also forbade them and the village gentry from carrying swords. Up until that time the village gentry would often wear swords, even when plowing the fields amongst their serfs.

The year 1772 was a monumental one in the history of the village, when Nehrybka along with other neighboring lands, at the time of the first partition, became part of the Austrian monarchy. After a brief time, the authorities of the monarchy auctioned the village to Count Ignacy Cetner. Under Austrian rule, Nehrybka lay in the province of Lviv. It was subject to the district command of the state police in Przemysl. During construction of the fortifications for Przemysl there was erected in Nehrybka an artillery battery "Nehrybka", which was to protect the city between the first and second rings of defense. For this reason, residents were not allowed to build houses near the fort. According to the census of 1858, there lived in Nehrybka 567 people. In 1868 the village belonged administratively to the district of Przemysl, its Roman Catholic parish was in Przemysl, while the Greek Catholic parish was in the village. Its land area was 985 acres. Most of them were arable and belonged to large landowners, such as Prince Konstantin Czartoryski or Karel Bielawski. In 1880, the population of Nehrybka was 610, of whom 141 belonged to the manorial estate (15 of whom were of the Roman Catholic rite). The Greek Catholic parish included the churches of Pikulice and Sielec. The village had Roman Catholic and Greek Catholic church buildings, and a primary school. The masonry Greek Catholic church of St. Stephen Protomartyr was built in 1885. It was severely damaged in World War I, but was rebuilt in 1926. The masonry church replaced an earlier wooden church that had existed at least as early as 1828. With the expulsion of Ukrainians in the 1940s, the filial churches in Pikulice and Sielec no longer exist. Today the church functions as a Roman Catholic parish.

In 1909 the village was owned by Hieronim Prince Lubomirski, and in 1914 Nehrybka belonged to Princess Karolina Lubomirska.

World War I was fought during the years 1914-1918. The lands near Nehrybka were especially besieged by the attacking Russian army. With the defeat of the Central Powers, namely Germany and Austria-Hungary, Nehrybka was to join the emerging Polish state. This was a difficult period in the village's history. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic majority living in and around Nehrybka was aware that they were a separate nation and wanted to have their own state. The problem is that for hundreds of years the lands, on which the Ukrainians wanted to create it, had belonged to the Poles. Shortly before the end of World War I, demobilized soldiers of both nations in Galicia, armed themselves and began to fight for the independence of their respective nations. From this time come the legendary Polish Eagles of Przemyśl. Eventually, Nehrybka found itself a part of the Polish state. At the time it had 678 inhabitants residing in 115 homes (about 6 persons per home). The village's population in 1921 included: 561 Greek Catholics (83%), 89 Roman Catholics (13%), and 27 Jews (4%). The Second Republic lasted about twenty years.

On 1 September 1939 Poland was attacked by the Germans and on 17 September by the Soviet Union. Poland disappeared from the map. The border between Germany and the Soviet Union proceeded along the San River, dividing Przemysl into two, and leaving Nehrybka under Soviet control. This state of affairs lasted until 1941. On June 22 at the German-Soviet border, German troops attacked the USSR. Within days, the residents of Nehrybka became citizens of the Nazi Third Reich. However, failures on the Eastern front, and especially by the Germans at the Battle of Kursk, tipped the balance in favour of the Soviet troops. On July 27, 1944, Nehbryka was "liberated" from German occupation. In the "liberated" territories, in a few years, began to rule the "people's government," which under Stalin was particularly onerous for residents. Only now these were very different inhabitants of the same Nehrybka.

After World War II, Poland reappeared on the map of Europe, but its borders were shifted significantly to the west and north. Within these limits, Germans who had owned lands for hundreds of years were expelled. Poles who had been expelled from areas inside the Soviet Union took their place. The Germans settled on former Ukrainians lands. In Nehbryka, during World War II, there was built a camp for Soviet and Italian prisoners of war, the site of 327/Z Stalag camp. They met a terrible fate. They were kept under inhumane conditions. Witnesses claim that the camp did not even have grass, because it was eaten by the prisoners. In one of the present factory buildings Polna S.A., prisoners of war were shot and then thrown into a mass grave at the Battery 2 "Nehrybka. To this day, in this place, stands a monument commemorating the tragedy of those people. Already in 1945, the Ukrainians of Nehrybka were being resettled. In their place came Poles expelled from within the borders of the USSR, who came mainly from Radochoniec and Miżyńca, as well as from Siberia. This changed the ethnic composition of the village, and by 1947 years the last group of Ukrainians was deported.