Two natives of the village, brothers Šimon Štefan and Michal Manuel Olšavský, made their hometown famous as bishops of the Greek Catholic Eparchy of Mukachevo in the eighteenth century.

[5] In 1944, the village was the site of a mass rescue of some 50 refugees, including 35 Jews who escaped the Holocaust in Slovakia, due to the exhortations of local Greek Catholic priest Michal Mašlej, who was held in high esteem by the farmers.

When Mašlej was concerned about the danger to his congregants, Gojdič told him: "The support to the persecuted results of charity and it is your duty according to your capacity to help and to provide shelter to the threatened by deportation".

[9] Researcher Nina Paulovičová compared Oľšavica to Nieuwlande and Le Chambon-sur-Lignon—other villages where the population banded together to hide Jews—adding that it was "remarkable" that no one informed on the fugitives and none of them were arrested.

It is bordered by Brutovce to the east, Tichý Potok to the north, Nižné Repaše to the west, Pavľany to the south, and Poproč to the southeast.