In 1486 Wojtkowa was called Turza

The entry, as printed

Idem. Labor. Iaczko et Petrus filius suus kmethones de Twrza gsi domi. Iohannis Iudicis Premisl. terr. de Rybotycze attemptaverunt terminum primum super nobil. Iacobum de Byercza, a quo [nobil. Nicolaus] Pyrwczsky familiaris suus tanquam nunccius reposuit simplici infirmitate.

In English

The same. The labourers Jaczko and his son Piotr, peasants of Turza belonging to the noble lord Jan of Rybotycze, land judge of Przemyśl, appeared at the first hearing against the nobleman Jakub of Bircza, for whom his servant [the nobleman Mikołaj] Pyrwczski, as messenger, put off the hearing on the plea of ordinary illness.

A neighbours’ war between Rybotycze and Bircza

In the 1480s the Rybotycki family, lords of the little town of Rybotycze on the Wiar, were at war with a neighbour, Jakub, heir of Bircza. In the spring of 1486 a whole series of suits from the people of Jan of Rybotycze, land judge of Przemyśl, reached the Przemyśl castle court. Stanisław Łyś of Rybotycze complained that Jakub, with ten noblemen and ten commoners, had seized him “on the king’s public highway in front of his town of Bircza” and kept him in chains.

On 19 June 1486 Jakub did not appear, and the judge awarded Stanisław his whole claim. Maciej Łyś and a second Stanisław Łyś of Rybotycze sued in the same way.

The peasants of Turza, 1486

In the same series, straight after the Łyś suits, the clerk wrote: “The same. The labourers Jaczko and his son Piotr, peasants of Turza” belonging to Jan of Rybotycze, appeared against Jakub of Bircza. Jakub’s servant came and put the case off on the plea of his lord’s “ordinary illness”.

What the peasants were claiming, the entry does not say. But their suit stands in one row with those of men seized on the highway, so most likely they too had suffered from Bircza’s people. That is our reading.

The same four villages, a different name

On 30 September 1494 Judge Jan and his stepson Rafał divided the Rybotycze estate. Rafał received “Grąziowa, Turza, Trzcianiec, Łomna”. In the spring of 1497 the same Rafał pledged for 80 florins “his villages of Grąziowa, Wojtkowa, Trzcianiec and Łomna”. Three names match, and in the place of Turza stands Wojtkowa.

In 1505 Rafał sold Rybotycze “with nine villages”, again including Grąziowa, Wojtkowa, Trzcianiec and Łomna, and no Turza. The tax register of 1515 lists “Voytkowa Volya”: 2 łans, a hand mill, a priest. Somewhere between the autumn of 1494 and the spring of 1497, Turza became Wojtkowa in the books. Why, the records do not say.

A name that lived into the 20th century

Turza did not disappear entirely. Describing 1945, Polish Wikipedia mentions a manor and farm “standing on Turza (part of Wojtkowa)”, burned that year. The village’s old name survived for five centuries as the name of one of its parts.

There were several places called Turza or Turze in the old land of Przemyśl, one of them near Stary Sambor. Ours is pinned down by four things together: in 1486 its peasants belong to the lord of Rybotycze, in 1494 it is part of the Rybotycze estate, in 1497 Wojtkowa takes its place in the same group of villages, and the name Turza still marks a part of Wojtkowa.

Sources

• Akta grodzkie i ziemskie, vol. XVII (Lwów, 1901), pp. 231–232, nos. 2077–2080 (19 June 1486); p. 341, no. 2938 (1497).
• Akta grodzkie i ziemskie, vol. XVIII (Lwów, 1903), p. 351, no. 2406 (30 September 1494); p. 480, no. 3438 (1505).
• A. Jabłonowski, Źródła dziejowe, vol. XVIII, pt. 1 (Warsaw, 1902): tax register of the land of Przemyśl, 1515.

© 2026 Vadym Ratynskyi. All rights reserved. The research, text and translations on this page may be copied or republished only with the author's permission. To ask for permission, write to hello@ukrainianhomecoming.com.