Dowspuda

Dowspuda
Village
Dowspuda
Coordinates: 53°58′42″N 22°48′7″E / 53.97833°N 22.80194°E / 53.97833; 22.80194
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Podlaskie
County	Suwałki
Gmina	Raczki
Population	180

Dowspuda ([dɔfsˈpuda]; Lithuanian: Dauspuda^[1]) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Raczki, within Suwałki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland.^[2] It lies approximately 2 kilometres (1 mi) south-east of Raczki, 15 km (9 mi) south-west of Suwałki, and 99 km (62 mi) north of the regional capital Białystok.

One of the proposed etymologies for the village'sname comes from the Jotvingian language Dau-spūda "to press hard, apply much pressure".^[1] The territory where Dowspuda is and the nearby Dowspuda river flows used to belong to Yotvingia.^[1]

From the 15th century, Dowspuda was the border between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Prussia.^[1] From the 13th-14th centuries until 1795, the village belonged to Lithuania.^[1]

Thereafter, it became part of New East Prussia of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1795 to 1807. Then, it was part of the Duchy of Warsaw from its creation in 1807 to its end in 1815, when it was replaced by Congress Poland.

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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  Remains of Pac castle
• 
  Pac castle in the 19th century

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