Alwernia

History

The name of the town is taken from that of the Franciscan hermitage of La Verna () in Tuscany, Italy. It was bestowed on the locality in 1616 by the castellan Krzysztof Koryciński. A monastery of the order of the Stigmata of Saint Francis of Assisi was built on high ground between 1625 and 1656. The church dates from the period between 1630 and 1676. Below the monastery a settlement developed which in 1776 received the right to hold a market. In 1796 Alwernia is mentioned as being a small commercial and administrative centre. After the Third Partition of Poland, the town became a part of the Austrian Empire, and since 1867 of Austria-Hungary. In the newly-reborn Poland, Alwernia administratively belonged to Kraków Voivodeship. Following the German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany. After the war, the town once again became a part of Kraków Voivodeship until 1998. On 15 September 1993 Alwernia received its town charter.