The Charming Village Of Chybie (Part 1)

Chybie (Chybi in German, Chybia  חיביאin Yiddish) is a community in the Silesian Voivodeship, in the Czyiesin district of Poland. It lies on the territory of the Cziyesin Silesia in the center of the Zhabie Region. Together with the municipalities of Mnich, Frelichov, Záboří and Záříčí, they form the Chybie Gmina.

In the past, it was a relatively important economic center of Northeastern Těšínsko and was originally associated with fishmongery and later the sugar industry. The railway node on the Northern Railroad of Emperor Ferdinand runs through the town. Historically, this part of Silesia belonged to the Bohemian Crown, not to Poland.

Bielsko Synagogue

Chybie’s Beginnings

The first mention of the village dates back to 1568. It appears on a document of the Teschen prince, Wenceslas III Adam. It contains a confirmation of the sale of a meadow to the Těšín burgher Jakub Franck and a permission for setting up other ponds. The area is described as “Zeleny Chyb” (meaning "Green Forest”). This is due to the wooded area around the Bajerka stream, known as “Wald Zeleny” on the 19th century maps.

The Administrative Boundaries were first identified in the 17th century. The gradual transformation of the local landscape and the development of the village since the 18th century were connected with the drying of the ponds and the building of new houses. The field of dry ponds represented a quarter of the village's territory in the 19th century. To date, the outline of the old network is visible in the form of a street network.

The intersection was set in the first half of the 19th century by the Jesenice - Strumeň road, which became the main axis of the village. In neighbouring villages (including Jilovnice and Drahomyšl) there are numerous ponds and the whole area is called “Zhabie” (“Frog Region”). The mentioned road is lined in the eastern part of the village (towards Jasenice) over two hundred oaks, which were declared a natural monument in 1993.

Local cinema, before WWII the Chybie synagogue

A train station was commissioned on the Northern Railroad of Emperor Ferdinand in 1855. The main line linked Vienna across eastern and northern Moravia and Silesia with Krakow and Galicia. In 1884, the Těšín Chamber built a sugar factory in the village. After more than a hundred years, the majority of the population were employed by rail and sugar factories.

At the end of the 19th century, the village of Chybyie formally consisted of two parts: the Chybie-Village (at its borders Tarlisko and Chodnička) and Neuteich-Beňovec (“New Pond”). There was also the marginal sela Žabiněc (near the lake of the same name) and Zovišč (Zawisti).

According to the 1900 census, 1,321 people lived in Chybe. 73.8% were Polish, 16.7% were German and 5.1% were Czech. Religion-wise, 89% were Catholics, 3.5% were with the Evangelical Church, and 4.7% practiced Judaism. After the division of Těšín in 1920, Chybie was annexed to the Autonomous Silesian Voivodeship.

For those who want to go on a Jewish vacation to Poland, they might find Chybie to be a worthwhile visit, as we will discuss further in Part 2.