Torzym

Torzym
Main square
Flag Coat of arms
Torzym
Coordinates: 52°18′46″N 15°4′40″E
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Lubusz
County	Sulęcin
Gmina	Torzym
Area
• Total	9.11 km2 (3.52 sq mi)
Population  (2006)
• Total	2,456
• Density	270/km2 (700/sq mi)
Postal code	66-235
Website	http://www.torzym.pl

Torzym [ˈtɔʐɨm] (German: Sternberg in der Neumark) is a small town in Sulęcin County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the administrative seat of the urban-rural Gmina Torzym.

Geography

Torzym is situated on the Ilanka creek, a right tributary of the Oder, in the historic Neumark region. The town centre is located about 36 km (22 mi) east of the border with Germany at Słubice. Torzym station is a stop on the Warsaw–Kunowice railway line. The town also has access to the parallel A2 autostrada, part of the major European route E30, at the Torzym junction.

History

The settlement arose in the mid 13th century, after Lubusz Land had been sold by the Silesian duke Bolesław II Rogatka to the Archbishops of Magdeburg in 1248. Located on the trade route from Frankfurt (Oder) to Poznań in Greater Poland, a fortress at the site was probably named after Konrad von Sternberg, Prince-Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1266 until 1277. In 1287, the Magdeburg archbishop Eric of Brandenburg gave the estates in pawn to his elder brothers, the Ascanian margraves of Brandenburg. Under Brandenburg rule, the whole area east of the Oder river from about 1300 was called "Sternberg Land" (Sternberger Land) and became the nucleus of the larger Neumark region.

Parish church

The Brandenburg margraves vested Sternberg with town privileges in 1375. Several manors arose in the surrounding area, held by local nobles; the citizens mainly relied on cattle trade, brewing, and distilleries. Sternberg Castle probably was slighted during a 1506 expedition of the Hohenzollern elector Joachim I Nestor of Brandenburg against several robber barons devastating his country.

After the Napoleonic Wars, Sternberg Land was incorporated into the Prussian Province of Brandenburg and recalled in a 1816-founded Landkreis with its administrative seat in Zielenzig (from 1852 in Drossen). Part of the larger Regierungsbezirk Frankfurt, in 1873 the district was divided in two, Weststernberg (Drossen) and Oststernberg (Zielenzig) with Sternberg proper. The Protestant parish church was rebuilt between 1831 and 1834 in a Neoclassical style according to plans designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

Heavily devastated during the Vistula–Oder Offensive of the Red Army in the last weeks of World War II (on 31 January 1945), the town fell to the Republic of Poland by the implementation of the Oder-Neisse line in 1945. It was initially renamed as Toruń Lubuski, but was later changed as Torzym by Polish authorities. The remaining German population was expelled and the municipality lost city rights.

Torzym regained the status of a town in 1994.

External links

• Jewish Community in Torzym on Virtual Shtetl