Metadata: Variae civitates et villae – a collection of remnants of the archival fonds: Dukla
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- National Archives in Krakow
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie
- Postal address:
- ul. Sienna 16, 30–960 Kraków
- Phone number:
- (+48 12) 422 40 94; (+48 12) 4212790; (+48 12) 421 68 81
- Web address:
- http://ank.gov.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ank.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 29/121.17
- Title:
- Variae civitates et villae – a collection of remnants of the archival fonds: Dukla
- Title (official language):
- Variae civitates et villae – zbiór szczątków zespołów. Dukla
- Creator/accumulator:
- Municipality of Dukla
- Date(s):
- 1540/1816
- Language:
- Latin
- Polish
- German
- Extent:
- 0.33 linear metres (7 volumes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection is made up of various types of legal documents. The Jewish elements include disposals of will, complaints, actions/plaints, petitions to the municipality and the proprietor, and verdicts. Entries predominantly concern sale/purchase of real property, acknowledgment of debt, repayments of debt (incl. by instalments), bills-of-exchange, and pledges/liens. Frequent entries in municipal registers include receipts/bills, settlements/arrangements, sporadically – settlements of leasehold income, setting up security deposits, or quoted content of the rabbinical court’s verdict. The most numerous complaints to the authorities and plaints refer to debt payoffs. The court was furthermore requested to extend the repayment deadline, distribute the payoff, or withhold an auction. Not only natural persons were summoned: so were legal entities – for instance, another town. The authorities were once notified of a fire at a real estate as endangering the entire community.
The court-of-law and the office issued ordinances and verdicts concerning Jews, mostly instructing that a debt be returned, seizing movable/immovable properties, commissioning valuations/appraisals of real estate. Realties were taken over for debts, and put to auction.
Jewish items related to family proceedings are rare; these include, for instance: a legacy settlement; accusation of a father-in-law of real property annexation, and of a wife that had apparently abandoned her husband’s house. Such Jewish-related elements have been found to appear in all parts of the collection.
- Archival history:
- Initially owned by the municipality, the collection was transmitted in the nineteenth century to the K.U.K. District Court [Sąd Powiatowy] of Dukla. Since it was not needed there, it was subsequently transferred to the Polish Academy of Arts & Sciences [PAU] in Krakow. Pursuant to a reskrypt (government order) from the Ministry of Justice (of 1899), the Court redirected the collection to the Archives of Krakow as a governmental deposit. At the time it consisted of ten books/registers; since it appeared that a few had joined it accidentally, the Archive has finally housed seven of them.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Dukla is a town located in the Carpathians, 17 km from the Poland-Slovakia border (which was the Polish-Hungarian border until 1918), on the route to Hungary, 18 km south of Krosno, and 74 km from Rzeszów. Dukla used to be a private town in the Przemyśl Land, Ruthenian Voivodeship, within the Kingdom of Poland (‘the Crown’). Between 1772 and 1918 it was ruled by Austria, as part of Galicia; since 1786, Dukla was the seat of a precinct (cyrkuł).
Jews began to settle in Dukla around 1610, with twenty-three families recorded in 1676, a kahal and a cemetery existing as of 1742, and a brick synagogue as of 1758. 547 Jewish residents were reported in 1795; they accounted for 51% of the town’s population in 1824.
Dukla was a private town, owned by the Jordan family before 1588; then followed the families of Zborowski and, since 1636, Męciński/Mniszech (Mniszech became the sole owners in 1710). The development of the town was the concern of Jerzy-August Mniszech, who in 1768 launched compulsory education for all the children; the recording of deals concluded between Jews was made obligatory since 1764. Dukla assumed the Magdeburg Law for its incorporation as a city in 1373/1380; there was a burgomaster (burmistrz) and councillors (rajcas), and an elective municipal ‘Bench’. Dukla was acquired in 1779 by Józef Ossoliński, who in line with the Austrian system turned the town into the centre of a ‘State’ of Dukla, with a domanial and, simultaneously, State administration.
- Access points: locations:
- Dukla
- Subject terms:
- Financial matters
- Financial matters--Debt
- Legal records
- Real estate
- Wills
- System of arrangement:
- The books/registers are arranged by chronology and subject: Ref. no. 52 (formerly, DEP 76), [Assessors’ Register of Dukla, 1540–76; testaments/(last) wills 1589–1674]; Ref. no. 53 (formerly, DEP 77), [Assessors’ Register of Dukla, 1577–1638, 1640, 1667]; Ref. no. 54 (formerly, DEP 78), [The Vogt’s-and-Assessors’ Register of Dukla, 1644–1784]; ref. no. 55 (formerly, ref. no. DEP 79); [The Vogt’s-and-Burgomaster’s Register of Dukla, 1764–87]; Ref. no. 56 (formerly, ref. no. DEP 80), [The book of the Municipal Authority [magistrat] of Dukla, decrees and transactions, 1782–7]; ref. no. 57 (formerly, DEP 81) [Court register of the State of Dukla, from 1787 on]; Ref. no. 58 (formerly, DEP 82) [Court register of the State of Dukla, 1791–1816].
- Access, restrictions:
- If a copy (microfilm, scan, photocopy) of a document exists, this is what will be made available. Access to the originals requires the consent of the Director.
- Finding aids:
-
Inventory available online.
530 Jewish-related items are available in the database of the Jagellonian University at http://www.uj.edu.pl/web/judaiki under the headings Dukla (DEP 80, 81, 82) and „Variae civitates et villae – zbiór szczątków zespołów” (ref. 52, 53, 54, 56).
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Janusz S. Dąbrowski; Kraków; 2015
