Albendorf (now Okrzeszyn) was probably founded in the middle of the XIII-th century during the colonization of the Trutnov area carried out by Idik of Svabenice, the ruler of Moravy. According to a legend the founder and the first village head was a glazier - Albert, who build glassworks in a valley of a forest brook , called Glaser Wasser ever since (now Szkło - Glass). Albendorf was founded in accordance with the German law, where the village head was a very important official. He could run an inn, mill and distillery. He also accepted new settlers, granted them lands , judged, passed sentences, had shares in collected taxes . The post of village head was inherited. Albendorf developed quickly and prospered. Soon an impressive church was built. In 1297 the care of the church was granted to the Zderażski priory in Prague . The disposition was issued by Vitek of Upa. In the middle of the XIV century Albendorf was given as a present to the Priory in Krzeszów. In the village , administered by the Cistersians, agriculture , flax growing , stonework , ore mining and weaving were developed. Over the centuries Albendorf flourished in peacetime and declined in wartime . It belonged to Czechs , Austrians and Prussians. There were different states, different rulers but the common people remained on their land , which was passed down through generations .
At the beginning of 1945 there were two weaving plants , a pasta factory , a slaughterhouse , two mills , a smithy , two bakeries , a tailor's workshop , a guesthouse, a school, customs and a train terminal. Over thirty farmers ran big farmsteads. Religious needs were satisfied by two Catholic churches and a Protestant one. The World War II reached the village as late as in spring 1945. It came with the Red Army. The inhabitants experienced many disasters and humiliations. In summer 1945 the first Poles arrived at Albendorf. Part of them from the annexed by the Soviet Union , Eastern Borderlands, part of them from , devastated by the war , central Poland and the others from declined and backward southern parts of Poland. The until now residents were displaced to Germany.
In spring 1946 the name Albendorf was replaced by the name Albinów (there is also the name Albanów existing in the documents). A year later the commission establishing the new names of locations gave the village the name Okrzeszyn. For the first time , since the beginning of its over 700-year existence, everything had changed – the state, the inhabitants, the political and economic system. The communist authorities introduced the restrictions on free moving in the borderland areas , which resulted in the disappearance of tourism. The bias against private enterpreneurship which was characteristic of the new government as well as the nationalization of industry both ruined the little private workshops, mills and weaving plants. Some of the new residents did not care for the posessions taken over from Germans. It often led to collapsing many buildings collapsed. The wrong administration of the agriculture caused the fall of many farms and the farmland was overgrown by forest. Copper prospecting , carried out by Jan Wyżykowski failed. Also the attempts of industrial-range uranium mining was not successsful. The village degraded and became impoverished.