Dowspuda | |
|---|---|
Village | |
.jpg) | |
  Dowspuda Location within Poland | |
| Coordinates: 53°58′42″N 22°48′7″E / 53.97833°N 22.80194°E | |
| Country |  Poland |
| Voivodeship | Podlaskie |
| County | Suwałki |
| Gmina | Raczki |
| Population | |
• Total | 180 |
Dowspuda ([dɔfsˈpuda]) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Raczki, within Suwałki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland.
One of the proposed etymologies for the village's name comes from the Jotvingian language Dau-spūda "to press hard, apply much pressure". The territory where Dowspuda is and the nearby Dowspuda river flows used to belong to Yotvingia.
From the 13th-14th centuries, the area formed part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and then the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 18th century, it was a private possession of the Pac family.
Following the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, it became part of New East Prussia of the Kingdom of Prussia. From 1807, it was part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw, within which it was located in the Łomża Department. After the duchy's dissolution, it was part of Russian-controlled Congress Poland from 1815. In 1823, Polish General Ludwik Michał Pac built a grand residence in Dowspuda. In 1835, the estate was confiscated by the Tsarist administration from the Pac family, as punishment for their support for the Polish November Uprising. During World War I, Dowspuda was occupied by Germany, and after the war it became part of restored independent Poland.
Following the German-Soviet invasion of Poland, whuch started World War II in September 1939, the village was occupied by Germany. One Polish citizen was murdered by Nazi Germany in the village during the war.
Around 1815–1821, Ludwik Michał Pac invited about 500 people from Scotland to the village, who were to teach the locals modern agriculture and various other crafts. The Scots founded a settlement called Szkocja and separate folwarks: Covenlock, New York (today Pruska Wielka), Longwood (Ludwinowo), Linton, Berwick (Korytki) and Bromfield (Józefowo). The Scots taught the local population how to switch from three-field system to crop rotation, encouraged the cultivation of potatoes and keeping them in mounds, as well as horse and sheep breeding. In 1816, under the supervision of Scottish engineers, various facilities began to be built: horse mill, water wheel, seed drill, plows, threshers, sifters for flour and grits. A brewery, vodka distillery, tannery, starch factory, and oil press were also opened. It was the third such oil press in the whole country (previously there was only one in Zwierzyniec, owned by Stanisław Zamoyski, and another in Antoni Trębicki's estate in Łomno). After the departure of Ludwik Pac, a large part of the Scots who had come here also left, but even today there are some Scottish descendants in the village. In 1996-2004 and in 2007, the Celtic culture festival Dowspuda was held in the palace ruins.
The village is home to the remains of the 19th-century Pac Palace.
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