Straduny

Straduny
Village
Church in Straduny
Straduny
Coordinates: 53°53′N 22°21′E / 53.883°N 22.350°E / 53.883; 22.350
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Warmian-Masurian
County	Ełk
Gmina	Gmina Ełk
Population	990

Straduny [straˈdunɨ] (formerly German Stradaunen) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Ełk, within Ełk County, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately 7 kilometres (4 mi) north of Ełk and 123 km (76 mi) east of the regional capital Olsztyn. It has approximately 990 inhabitants. There are three nature reserves in the vicinity.

The village was officially founded in 1475 as Straudenen by Bernhard von Balzhofen, Komtur of Brandenburg, as part of the monastic state of the Teutonic Knights.

The names Straudenen and Straduny derive from the Latin strada una, meaning "a street"; the village was located at a junction in Masuria between the Teutonic Knights and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania during the Middle Ages.

As Stradaunen, the village became part of the Duchy of Prussia in 1525 after the secularization of the Teutonic Knights. Stradaunen was included within the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and the German Empire in 1871. From 1818–1945, it was administered within Landkreis Lyck in East Prussia.

In a plebiscite after World War I to determine if the village would remain in the German Reich or become part of the Second Polish Republic, the majority of voters chose to remain in German East Prussia.