Mochów

Mochów (German Mochau, Mochōw)  is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Głogówek, within Prudnik County, Opole Voivodeship, in south-western Poland, close to the Czech border. It lies approximately 3 km north-west of Głogówek, 20 km east of Prudnik, and 35 km south of the regional capital Opole. Historically located in Upper Silesia, in the Prudnik Land.

History
The name of the village comes from the old Polish words mom chów, and refers to being a place of shelter for the local people during the 13th-century Mongol invasions of Poland. The oldest known mention of the village comes from 1358. Since its establishment, it was part of the Piast-ruled Poland and the Polish Duchy of Opole and Racibórz. In 1388 Duke Vladislaus II of Opole founded a Pauline monastery in Mochów, which was his second foundation after the famous Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa. In 1428, local monks were killed by invading Hussites. After the Opole line of the Piast dynasty became extinct in 1532, the village was incorporated into the Lands of the Bohemian (Czech) Crown. In 1578, Pauline monks settled in Mochów again. In 1645 along with the Duchy of Opole and Racibórz the village returned to Poland under the House of Vasa. The Black Madonna of Częstochowa was briefly hidden in Mochów by the Poles in time of Swedish invasions of Poland during the Second Northern War and Great Northern War.

In the 18th century the village was annexed by Prussia, which in 1810 dissolved the monastery and then the Pauline monks left. From 1871 to 1945, the village was also part of Germany, and during World War II, the Germans operated the E607 forced labour subcamp of the Stalag VIII-B/344 prisoner-of-war camp at the local sugar beet factory. The village became again part of Poland after the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II in 1945.