Bžany

Bžany is the gate to the recreational area Valkov. This belongs also to the area of village. Bžany is situated on the west bank of the VeĽká Domaša dam on the Ondava river. The oldest written mention about village comes from the year 1372 when occurred under the name Boztopak, Bozyas in 1474, Bzanye in 1773, BzannŽ in1808, Bžany in 1920. Some linguists hold that its Hungarian name comes from black elder.
Village is small in number of inhabitants. There were 5 homesteads in the village in 1493. Only one of them was populated but later in 1715 9 out of 13 were inhabited. In 1869 there were 32 houses with 239 inhabitants, in 1998 51 houses with 169 inhabitants.

In the Middle Ages Šírava also belonged to the yeomen´s properties. Later in the 18th and 19th centuries the Barkczys and the Szirmays - the yeomen had some properties here. Inhabitants of our village worked as loggers or they burnt coal or they were carters. In addition to this they had to work on yeoman's lands. In 1950 JRD (Agricultural Cooperative) was founded and in 1951 village was electrified. The regular bus connection started in 1952.
One part of the area was flooded by water from new dam. A bricked church of St Nicolas the Bishop comes from around 1825. It was walled by an embankment before water of the Domaša.

Mayor of Bžany.