There are many contradictory theories explaining the origins of Lemkos. The most probable way of their appearance in Poland is through the Wallachian migrations. They had already started in the twelfth century along the Carpathians and it had mainly been people from today’s Romania. On their way, through the lands of today’s Ukraine they merged together with the Ruthenian peoples, because of the faith. The Wallachian migration groups approached the area of today’s Poland at the turn of the thirteenth and fourteenth century. The settlers reached the soil of Beskid Śląski, but further west they were stopped by strong influence of customs and culture of the locals. They were not allowed to preserve their ethnical and cultural distinction. At the turn of the fifteenth and seventeenth century migrations ceased. The Wallachian people transformed themselves from migrant shepherds into settled farmers. Their dynamic development can be observed at the end of the sixteenth century, when the majority of the eliminated in the twentieth century villages, had already existed.
