 The village lies approximately south-east of Dobrzeń Wielki and north-west of the regional capital Opole.The settlement of "Charnovanz" was first mentioned in a 1228 deed issued by the Piast duke Casimir I of Opole, when he relocated a Premonstratensian (Norbertine) nunnery from Rybnik to the site, centered on St Norbert Church.The monastery was vested with extended estates; it was devastated by Swedish troops during the Thirty Years' War in 1643 and the nuns fled to Boleslawiec in Greater Poland.