Subdivisions of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria were administrative units of the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, a crown land of the Habsburg Monarchy (1772-1918). During the early period (1772-1804), and within the Austrian Empire (1804-1867), the kingdom was divided into since the late 18th century, which from 1854 were subdivided into (referred to as ('office districts'), to distinguish them from other types of ). During the later period, within and Austria-Hungary (1867-1918), the Kingdom was subdivided into political districts () for administrative purposes, which were referred to in Polish as (administrative counties). When they were introduced in 1867 there were 74 of these administrative counties; in 1900 there were 78 counties. The administrative counties were responsible for storing vital records. These counties were introduced following the 1867 December Constitution.
The Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria was the largest and most populous crown land of Cisleithania (i.e. the non-Hungarian parts of the Habsburg realms) between 1772 and 1918. More widely, the central European region of Galicia is today split between the modern states of Poland and Ukraine. Despite having passed through several intermediate states during the great wars of the 20th century, the regions have mainly preserved their territorial integrity and continue to demarcate the jurisdiction of local government authorities in their successor states.
(until 1865)
The (; ; , ; , ) of Galicia and Lodomeria go back in some form to the aftermath of the First Partition of Poland in 1772 which led to the Kingdom's creation, but did not take something resembling their final form until 1782. They were (generally) named after their capital/seat; usually this would take the form [genitival adjectival form of the name] (usually simply [Name]er e.g. from , the German name for Lviv), but [standard form of the name] (e.g. ) was also used, especially later, and the two forms were interchangeable.
At first, Galicia and Lodomeria was divided into six large circles (), named after major centers (Belz, Halych, Lviv, Pilzno, Sambir, Wieliczka), which were subdivided into 59 ('circle districts') in 1773. In 1775 the number of was reduced to 19.
In 1782 the two-level system was abolished and Galicia and Lodomeria was divided into 18 of the type used in the other non-Hungarian Habsburg realms (what would later be called Cisleithania). Over the next decade these would mostly take the forms which would persist until the mid-19th century.
As the border of Galicia and Lodomeria itself, the Vistula formed the northern borders of the , , and (partially) .
The (an exception where the name derives from the region, although it was also known as ) was added to Galicia and Lodomeria in 1786, having previously been a separate military district.
By the 1790s the were: – Trigonometric map of Galicia and Lodomeria by Joseph Liesganig, 1794. Available from the National Library of Poland here. A version coloured to show the post-1815 is also available here
In 1791 the had become the when its capital moved there.
The lands gained by the Habsburgs in the 1795 Third Partition of Poland became West (or New) Galicia, a separate part of the kingdom. It too was divided into . The area around on the right (southern) bank of the Vistula was transferred to the . West Galicia was incorporated into Galicia-proper in 1803 as a semi-autonomous region.
West Galicia was largely bounded by the Vistula, Bug and Pilica rivers. The Vistula also formed the eastern border of the , the western border of the and , the eastern and southern border of the , the southern border of the and part of those of the and .
The West Galician :
Sometimes the and from the first partition were considered as a part of West Galicia. In this configuration, the crownland overlapped heavily with the historical Lesser Poland.
In 1803 West and East Galicia were united into Galicia and the number of in West Galicia was reduced to 6: Krakuer, Kielcer, Radomer, Lubliner, Chełmer, Bialer.
In 1804 the Habsburg monarchy, which until then had been de jure a collection of nominally separate states in a personal union under the Habsburg(-Lorraine)s, was formally united into the Austrian Empire, making Galicia and Lodomeria an Austrian crown land.
In 1809 the Treaty of Schönbrunn ceded the third-partition-territory plus the and an area around on the right bank of the Vistula to the Duchy of Warsaw, a Napoleonic client. It also ceded the and most of the to the Russian Empire, where they became the . Most of the rump of was merged with a part of the to become the with the rest going to the itself.
The was returned to Austria in 1815 (Congress of Vienna); the former became the . The area adjacent to on the right bank of the Vistula, which had been part of the Duchy of Warsaw, went to the and , re-establishing the Vistula as the border. (The other territories which had been ceded to the Duchy of Warsaw on the other hand went to the Russian-controlled Congress Poland, other than the city of Kraków and its environs, which became the Free City of Cracow.)
In 1819 the became the .
The Free City of Cracow was annexed by Austria in 1846, nominally becoming the Grand Duchy of Kraków but administratively added to Galicia as the . The extent of this , which matched that of the former free city, was similar but not identical to the earlier of West Galicia.
The was detached as the Duchy of Bukovina in 1849.Gesetz vom 13. März 1849, RGBl. 163/1849:
In 1850, following the Revolutions of 1848 the were abolished and replaced with a system of political districts (see ) but these changes were reversed in Bach's reforms from 1853.Gesetz vom 19. Jänner 1853, RGBl. 10/1853: The changes to Galicia and Lodomeria were specifically laid out in 1854: they divided the crown land into two (administrative regions/territories) based in Lemberg (Lviv/Lwów) and Krakau (Krawów), which each oversaw some of the land's ; the two cities themselves were directly subordinate to the crown land. The were also subdivided into ('districts'; also referred to as ('office districts')).Gesetz vom 24. April 1854, RGBl. 111/1854:
In 1860 and Bukovina were dissolved and re-subordinated to ; the was partitioned between the and ; the and were merged into .Gesetz vom 6. August 1860, RGBl. 198/1860: Bukovina was detached again in the 1861 February Patent.Patent vom 28. Februar 1861, RGBl. 20/1861:
Below is a list of the divisions (, and ) as of 1854, with changes after that noted. (Divisions are listed with the names used in the legislation, i.e. mostly in contemporary German and/or Polish. Capitals are in bold.):
The in Galicia and Lodomeria were abolished in 1865 (enacted 23 September, effective 31 October), with the subordinated directly to Lemberg.Gesetz vom 23. September 1865, RGBl. 92/1865:
and political districts (1850–53) In 1850, in the aftermath of the revolutions of 1848, Galicia and Lodomeria was divided into three ('government districts'), named after their capitals: (Lviv/Lwów), (Kraków) and (Stanislaviv/Stanisławów; today called Ivano-Frankivsk). The were abolished and replaced with political districts ().Gesetz vom 8. October 1850, RGBl. 383/1850: While political districts where also introduced in many other crown lands, they generally either retained their (often with a reduced number) or were not divided other than into political districts; the were specific to Galicia and Lodomeria. This first attempt to introduce political districts to the Empire ended in 1853 with Bach's reforms.
Political districts (from 1867)
In 1867 political districts ( or more properly ; ; also called counties (in the administrative sense) when translated from the Polish – see ) were reintroduced to Galicia and Lodomeria. They originally numbered 74:Verordnung vom 23. Jänner 1867, RGBl. 17/1867:
Lemberg and Krakau remained independent cities; the city of Krakau lost Czarnawieś, Kawiory, Dąbie, Głębinów, Beszcz, Piaski and Grzegorzki to Bezirk Krakau.
The initial 23 January boundaries were amended on 19 July 1867. In addition to boundary changes this reform assigned several municipalities to the Bircza and Tarnów districts which had initially been left unassigned.Verordnung vom 19. Juni 1867, RGBl. 86/1867: On 10 January 1869 a few more municipalities changed hands and more unassigned municipalities were allocated to the Bircza, Drohobycz, Turka, Staremiasto, Mościska, Lemberg and Podhajce districts.Kundmachung vom 10. Jänner 1869, LGuVBl. Galiziens 12/1869:
A broad boundary reform took effect on 1 August 1878. These reforms adjusted the boundaries of both the political districts and the judicial districts (), the latter of which had not been adjusted in 1867. Verordnung vom 29. Jänner 1878, RGBl. 15/1878: Kundmachung vom 30. April 1878, LGuVBl. Galiziens 37/1878:
Some other districts were created later: ; (Podgórze): constituted on 15 September 1896 from the judicial districts () of Podgórze and Skawina (formerly part of ).Kundmachung vom 5. August 1896, RGBl. 148/1896: It gained some municipalities from on 1 January 1899 (Borek Szlachecki, Facimiech, Gołuchowice, Krzęcin, Ochodza, Polanka-Haller and Zelczyna)Kundmachung vom 2. Juni 1898, LGuVBl. Galiziens 45/1898: and 1 June 1903 (Pozowice).Kundmachung vom 3. Juni 1903, LGuVBl. 53/1903: It lost some villages to the city of Kraków in 1910 (Dębniki and with ),Gesetz vom 13. November 1909, LGuVBl. Galiziens 148/1909: 1911 () and 1912 (Płaszów). Podgórze itself was incorporated into the city of Kraków on 1 July 1915;Kaiserliche Verordnung vom 18. Juni 1915, RGBl. 170/1915: the district became "" on the same day.Kundmachung vom 25. Juni 1915, RGBl. 175/1915: ; (Strzyżów) on 15 September 1896 ; (Pechenizhyn) on 15 July 1898Kundmachung vom 18. Mai 1898, RGBl. 86/1898: ; (Przeworsk) on 1 November 1899Kundmachung vom 10. October 1899, RGBl. 199/1899: ; ; (Zboriv) on 1 September 1904Kundmachung vom 17. August 1904, RGBl. 88/1904: (Oświęcim) on 1 July 1910Kundmachung vom 31. Mai 1910, RGBl. 110/1910: (Skole) on 1 January 1911Kundmachung vom 13. November 1910, RGBl. 204/1910: (Radekhiv) on 1 January 1912Kundmachung vom 6. Dezember 1911, RGBl. 225/1911:
In 1902 the Galician-Hungarian border was adjusted slightly, now running along the mountain ridge through the peak of Rysy; prior to this it had run through the Morskie Oko lake about a kilometre to the west. This therefore slightly expanded Neumarkt/Nowy Targ district.
Later History
Interwar period
During the Interwar period what had been Galicia and Lodomeria became part of the Second Polish Republic. Its territory became the Kraków, Lwów, Tarnopol and Stanisławów Voivodeships. For the most part the former political districts were transitioned directly into Polish powiats (counties or districts). Kraków Voivodeship also gained a small amount of territory annexed from Hungary (Jabłonka and Nowa Biała), which would become a border conflict with Czechoslovakia. These areas were initially organised as before its incorporation into Nowy Targ powiat (which corresponds to the modern Nowy Targ and Tatra powiats) in 1925.
In 1938 some additional territories along what was by this time the Polish-Czechoslovak border were ceded to Kraków Voivodeship: Javorina and Lesnica.
World War II