Rudy, Silesian Voivodeship

Rudy
Rudy
Village
	Our Lady Basilica and monastery in Rudy
	Rudy
	Coordinates: 50°11′N 18°27′E / 50.183°N 18.450°E
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Silesian
County	Racibórz
Gmina	Kuźnia Raciborska
Established	13th century
Population	2,800
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Vehicle registration	SRC
Voivodeship roads

Rudy ([ˈrudɨ], also known as Rudy Wielkie or Rudy Raciborskie) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kuźnia Raciborska, within Racibórz County, Silesian Voivodeship, in southern Poland.^[1] It lies approximately 12 kilometres (7 mi) east of Kuźnia Raciborska, 20 km (12 mi) north-east of Racibórz, and 40 km (25 mi) west of the regional capital Katowice.

With history going back to the 13th century, it is a site of the gothic Cistercian Rudy Palace-Monastery. There is also a narrow gauge railway station and museum in the village.

Rudy gives its name to the protected area called Rudy Landscape Park (in full: "Landscape Park of the Cistercian Landscape Compositions of Rudy Wielkie").

History

In the early 13th century a monastery was founded at the site, however, it was destroyed in the First Mongol invasion of Poland in 1241. The Cistercians rebuilt the monastery in 1252–1255. A foundation document was issued by Duke Władysław Opolski of the Polish Piast dynasty in 1258, and it was confirmed by Pope Gregory X in 1274. The Cistercians developed the village. In the early 14th century, Duke Przemysław of Racibórz funded the construction of a new church (present-day Basilica) in Rudy.

During World War II, the Germans established and operated three forced labour subcamps (E374, E588, E742) of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp in the village.^[2] In the final stages of the war, in 1945, a German-conducted death march of prisoners of a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp in Sosnowiec passed through the village towards Opava.^[3]