Ropczyce

History

The first reference to Ropczyce comes from a document of 1252, which confirmed the donation of the land by the brothers Klemens and Marek Gryf to a Cistercian Abbey in Szczyrzyc near Limanowa. Around this time Ropczyce was damaged by a Tatar raid. Ropczyce was severely damaged during a Tatar raid in 1504. To help the town and citizens recover from this tragedy, king Alexander Jagiellon gave all the citizens a 10-year tax exemption from 1504 to 1514 In the 15th and 16th centuries Ropczyce became a major centre in the manufacture of canvas goods. Ropczyce's "Golden Age" was but a distant memory in the 17th and 18th centuries – these were times of wars and invasions. The town went into decline and life got a lot harder for the townspeople. In 1605 over half of the town was destroyed in a great fire. Fifty years later, Ropczyce was hit by The Plague. Ropczyce was plundered by Swedish troops in 1655 and then devastated in 1657 by the army of George II Rákóczi, the Prince of Transylvania. In 1669 the Parish Church was destroyed by fire. On 14 July 1772, following the First Partition of Poland, Ropczyce found itself in the Austrian province of Galicia, part of the Habsburg monarchy in the Austro-Hungarian Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. Ropczyce was first located in the administrative area (or cyrkuł) of Pilzno and in the Sandomierz district. In 1775 the administrative areas in Galicia were reorganised and Ropczyce was reallocated to the Tarnów cyrkuł. Fortunately for Ropczyce, as a 'Royal town', it was given virtually autonomous administration. The position of 'town advocate' was replaced by the new position of mayor. However, during these times the whole region was systematically Germanised, from the system of administration, local by-laws, education to everyday life.…

Geography

Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, it is the capital of Ropczyce-Sędziszów County. Ropczyce is located east of Kraków and west of Rzeszów. The coordinates for Ropczyce: Latitude 50°0500' and Longitude 21°6167. In DMS or Degree, Minutes, & Seconds; Latitude 50°2'60N and Longitude is 21°37'0E. Its elevation is above sea level. The time zone for Poland is UTC+1.

Most-observed species

• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  374
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  372
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  324
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  313
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  300
• Yellowhammer

  Emberiza citrinella Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  297
• Barn Swallow

  Hirundo rustica Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  284
• European Starling

  Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  277