Cieszyn Vlachs

Cieszyn Vlachs (Polish: Wałasi cieszyńscy, Czech: Těšínští Valaši) are a Polish ethnographic group (subgroup of Silesians) living around the towns of Cieszyn and Skoczów, one of the four major ethnographic groups in Cieszyn Silesia, the one mostly associated with wearing Cieszyn folk costume but not the only one speaking Cieszyn Silesian dialect. The name, identical to Vlachs (Polish: Wołosi or Wałasi), is probably not directly associated with that group (as Gorals are) but was coined by adjacent groups as a nickname.

The culture of this group blossomed in the second half of the 19th century. The exact extent of its habitat is hard to determine due to overlapping of various cultural elements with adjacent groups, especially on the borderlands. Cieszyn Vlachs dwell on Silesian Foothills and on the north-western slopes of Silesian Beskids in the watershed of Vistula and Olza rivers, within Cieszyn Silesia (also in the Zaolzie region). Their neighbours include Silesian Lachs to north west, and Silesian Gorals to south.

Vlachs

Vlachs (English pronunciation: /ˈvlɑːk/ or /ˈvlæk/) is a historical term used for Eastern Romance-speaking peoples in the Balkans and Eastern Europe; several modern peoples descending from the Romanized population in present-day Romania and Moldova, the southern Balkan Peninsula and south and west of the Danube. They were identified during the 11th century (when they were described by George Kedrenos), and their prehistory during the Migration Period is a matter of scholarly speculation. According to one origin theory, the Vlachs originated from Latinized Dacians. According to some linguists and scholars, the Eastern Romance languages prove the survival of the Thraco-Romans in the lower Danube basin during the Migration Period and western Balkan populations known as "Vlachs" also have had Romanized Illyrian origins. Nearly all central- and southeastern European nations (Hungary, Ukraine, Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Albania, Greece and Bulgaria) have native Vlach (or Romanian) minorities; in other countries, the Vlachs have assimilated to the Slavic population. The term was also commonly used for shepherds. Today, the Eastern Romance-speaking communities number 24,187,810 people.

Cieszyn

Cieszyn [ˈt͡ɕɛʂɨn] (Czech: Těšín, German: Teschen, Yiddish: טעשין‎) is a border-town in southern Poland on the east bank of the Olza River, and the administrative seat of Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship. The town has about 36,100 inhabitants (as of 2013), and lies opposite Český Těšín in the Czech Republic's Karviná District, Moravian-Silesian Region. Both towns belonged to the historical region of Austrian Silesia and are the historical capital of the region of Cieszyn/Těšín Silesia.

Geography

The town is situated on the Olza river, a tributary of the Oder River, which forms the border with the Czech Republic. It is located within the western Silesian Foothills north of the Silesian Beskids and Mt. Czantoria Wielka, a popular ski resort. Cieszyn is the heart of the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia, the southeasternmost part of Upper Silesia. Until the end of World War I in 1918 it was a seat of the Dukes of Teschen.

In 1920 Cieszyn Silesia was divided between the two newly created states of Poland and Czechoslovakia, with the smaller western suburbs of Teschen becoming part of Czechoslovakia as a new town called Český Těšín. The larger part of the town joined Poland as Cieszyn. Three bridges connect the twin towns. After Poland and the Czech Republic joined the European Union and its passport-free Schengen zone, border controls were abolished and residents of both the Polish and Czech part could move freely across the border. Both Polish and Czech part of the city have 61,201 inhabitants. Cieszyn is the southern terminus of the Polish National road 1 leading to Gdańsk on the Baltic coast.

Cieszyn (disambiguation)

Cieszyn may refer to the following places: