Brodnica

Brodnica
Brodnica
	Palace of Anna Vasa
	; Coat of arms
	; Coat of arms
	Brodnica
	Coordinates: 53°15′N 19°24′E / 53.25°N 19.4°E
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Kuyavian-Pomeranian
County	Brodnica County
Gmina	Brodnica (urban gmina)
Established	13th century
Town rights	1298
	Government
• Mayor	Jarosław Radacz
	Area
• Total	23.15 km2 (8.9 sq mi)
	Population (2006)
• Total	32,588
• Density	1,407.7/km2 (3,645.9/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	87–300 to 87–302
Area code(s)	+48 56
Car plates	CBR
Website	http://www.brodnica.pl

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For the village of the same name, see Brodnica, Greater Poland Voivodeship.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Brodnica

Brodnica [brɔdˈnit͡sa] ( listen) (German: Strasburg in Westpreußen, Strasburg an der Drewenz) is a town in northern Poland with 27,400 inhabitants as of 1995^[update]. Previously part of Toruń Voivodeship [a province], from 1975 to 1998, Brodnica has been situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. It is the seat of Brodnica County, and Brodnica Landscape Park, a protected area, also gets its name from Brodnica.

[edit] Important dates in the history of Brodnica

1285–1370 – the construction of the parish church (Gothic Church of St. Catherine)
1298 – the foundation of the town of Brodnica
1303–1466 – the Michałowo land is occupied by the Teutonic Knights
1310–1330 – the construction of the city walls
1312–1327 – the construction of a castle for the Teutonic Master
1550 – a great fire sweeps through the town and destroys the castle
1479–1818 – Michałowo, Brodnica's district at the time, is the seat of the local starost. In 1560 a court district of Michałowo comprising the Lubawa Land with Nowe Miasto Lubawskie is created
1807 – Napoleon Bonaparte visits Brodnica
1840 – Frederick William IV of Prussia visits Brodnica
1850 – a great fire destroys the oldest part of the town
18 January 1920 – General Haller's Blue Army arrives to the town
15–18 August 1920 – the eastern part of the district is seized by the Red Army, (Polish–Soviet War)
18 August 1920 – Battle of Brodnica: great Polish victory over Red Army
22 June 1924 – President of the Republic of Poland Stanisław Wojciechowski visits Brodnica
1919–1939 – Gazeta Brodnicka (Brodnica Newspaper) is published 3 times a week in the Kazimierz Wojciechowski printing house (in 1921 renamed Gazeta Michałowska (Michałowo Newspaper)
26 October 1939 – the Germans incorporate Brodnica into the Third Reich: Poles have status of slaves with no human rights
23 January 1945 – the Red Army seizes Brodnica, more than 700 inhabitants of the town and neighborhood (mostly Poles) are deported to soviet camps (gulags)
2 July 2010 – Marshal of the Sejm Bronisław Komorowski visits Brodnica

[edit] History

Castle in Brodnica (tower)

Brodnica – the capital of the district, whose present quarter Michałowo, a settlement mentioned as early as in 1138 and then in 1240 as castrum Michałowo, hides relics from Neolithic era. As it is confirmed in old documents Michałowo was the capital of the Masovian Castellany. The town was chosen owing to its good position on the Drwęca (on the trade route leading from Masovia to Prussia) and a customs house between Dobrzyń and Chełmno Land (mentioned in 1252).

The first reference to the town of Brodnica dates from 1263. Brodnica received German town law in 1298. Although the Teutonic rule ended here with the Treaty of Toruń 1466 (as on the entire Chełmno Land), Brodnica remained in the hands of Teutonic Knights until 1479. A favourable location on the intersection of important routes used for transportation of different goods (wood, fish, furs, animal skin, grain, wool) accelerated the development of the town, making it an important trading centre, the status still reflected in the number of well-preserved granaries along the Drwęca. In the Teutonic state Brodnica was the seat of the Commander: in the Polish Republic it was the capital of the district starosty, and the former Commander's lands were then royal property. Between 1486 and 1604 the town belonged to the Działyński family, then between 1604 and 1625 to Anna Vasa of Sweden who was the royal sister of Sigismund III Vasa, King of Poland, Lithuania, and Sweden. In later years it was the property Queen Cecily Renata, Chancellor Jerzy Ossoliński, Queen Maria Casimira, and Marshal Franciszek Bieliński.

After a period of stagnation instigated by the wars of the 17th and 18th cc., the city's fortunes improved rapidly.

Brodnica was incorporated into the Kingdom of Prussia in 1772, during the First Partition of Poland, but in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars, Brodnica became part of the Duchy of Warsaw. Between 1815–1920 Brodnica was again under a Prussian administration as part of the Prussian-led German Empire in 1871.

The 19th century saw 20 thousand Polish soldiers interned after the failure of the November Uprising (1830–1831) and many townspeople and noblemen involved in the January Uprising (1863). It is in Brodnica region too that Masovian insurgents sought refuge from Russian persecution after the failure of the January Uprising.

Railway station in Brodnica

Between 1886 and 1910 Brodnica received railway connections with Działdowo, Grudziądz, Iława, Sierpc and Jabłonowo Pomorskie, which made it an important railway junction and triggered the industrial progress. In 19th c. the Chełmno Land (and Brodnica in particular) was a refuge of Polish patriots who contributed greatly to social, cultural and economic life of the region, like Ignacy Łyskowski.

In 1920, after the end of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles was established, the town of Brodnica became part of Poland.

During World War II approximately 1,000 Polish inhabitants were murdered by the SS and the Selbstschutz, and, after the war ended, an unknown number of German inhabitants were expelled or killed by the Red Army during the expulsion of the Germans.

[edit] War cemetery in Brodnica

Worth attention is the cemetery established by Germans during the World War I. 15 November saw a burial of 25 German soldiers killed in the Russian offensive. In 1920 31 Polish soldiers killed during the battle of Brodnica with the Bolsheviks on 18 August were laid to rest here. In 1943 German soldiers who died in the local hospital together with those who lost their lives on 21 January 1945 during the Soviet offensive were put in the ground. A curiosity is that the Red Army soldiers who died on the same day were buried here as well. It is also a burial place for UB people notorious for waging war with Polish anti-communist partisans after 1945.