Łowicz

Coordinates: 52°6′N 19°56′E / 52.100°N 19.933°E / 52.100; 19.933
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
See also: Łowicz, Radomsko County
Łowicz
Cathedral in Łowicz
Cathedral in Łowicz
UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
99-400 to 99-402
Area code+48 46
Vehicle registrationELC
Websitewww.lowicz.eu

Łowicz

Bednary, Łowicz is a major rail junction of central Poland, where the line from Warsaw splits into two directions—towards Poznań, and Łódź. Also, the station Łowicz Main is connected through a secondary-importance line with Skierniewice
.

Łowicz was a residence of Polish

Battle of the Bzura River
, in the opening campaign of World War II.

Łowicz has an important ethnographic museum (Muzeum w Łowiczu) exhibiting Polish art and historical artifacts from the region. Also, Łowicz features a popular skansen with traditional wooden houses. It is a vast open-air display of historical structures depicting traditional Polish village-life; a collection of artifacts spread over a 17-hectare (42 acre) site, just outside the town.[3]

Łowicz is a prominent site of food production, i.e. fruit and vegetable preserves and dairy products, popular in Poland and abroad.

Near the town is the

Lwów University of Technology.[4]

History

Middle Ages

Łowicz traditional folk costume

The history of Lowicz dates back to the 12th century, when a

Wladyslaw Odonic of Kalisz and Casimir I of Opole
issued the so-called Immunity Privilege, in which they confirmed the fact that Archbishops of Gniezno owned Lowicz. At that time, Lowicz was still called villa (village), even though the archbishops’ mansion already existed here.

It is not known when Lowicz received town charter. First document which calls it oppidium (town) dates back to 1298, and was issued by Duke Boleslaw I of

Jaroslaw of Bogoria and Skotnik built a brick Gothic castle in the location of the former gord. The castle became one of residences of Archbishops of Gniezno and Primates of Poland. Furthermore, in ca. 1358, he granted Magdeburg rights
to the newly established New Town (Nowe Miasto). New Civitas of Lowicz was located east of the old gord, along the Bzura and around the wooden church, which stood in the location of contemporary Cathedral Basilica.

In the late

castellany. Located on the border between the Kingdom of Poland and the Duchy of Masovia, it remained under firm control of the Gniezno Archbishops. In the mid-14th century Lowicz, together with 111 adjacent villages, was the biggest church property in Poland. On May 17, 1359, Siemowit III, Duke of Masovia confirmed the ownership of Lowicz by the Gniezno Primates. Nevertheless, the dukes of Masovia on several occasions tried to place Lowicz under their authority, which resulted in conflicts with Polish kings, who supported the Archbishops. On April 8, 1382, Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia
besieged Łowicz, and such conflicts occasionally returned until the incorporation of Mazovia into Poland.

Lowicz prospered in the 15th century. In 1404, Archbishop

Wojciech Jastrzebiec named it a Collegiate church, and soon afterwards, a branch of Kraków Academy
was established here.

On October 24, 1419, Archbishop Mikołaj Trąba confirmed the town charter of Łowicz and unified legal regulations of the three districts of Łowicz: Podgrodzie (Suburb), Stare Miasto (Old Town) and Nowe Miasto (New Town). In 1443, a town hall was built in the market square of the Old Town. Due to its convenient locations, multiple royal privileges and frequent fairs, Łowicz prospered. Administratively it was located in the Rawa Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province.

Modern era

Early 17th-century view of Łowicz

The town remained under the authority of the Archbishops of Gniezno, and as a residency of the Primates of Poland, since 1572 Łowicz occasionally served as a second capital of the Kingdom, during the periods known as

Swedish invasion of Poland (1655–1660). The town was visited by Polish kings John II Casimir Vasa and John III Sobieski, as well as Polish national hero Tadeusz Kościuszko.[6] Almost completely destroyed, Łowicz never regained its importance and turned into a small, local town. Nevertheless, it remained a cultural center, as in 1668 one of the first Piarist Colleges in Poland-Lithuania was opened here. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through Łowicz in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route.[7] Łowicz was also a garrison town of the Polish Crown Army, with the Prince Frederick Mounted Regiment and 3rd, 7th and 9th Infantry Regiments stationed there at various times.[8]

Main post office

After the

Fryderyk Chopin.[9]

In 1831, following the last will of Joanna Grudzinska, the Duchy of Lowicz became the property of Polish rulers. Since at that time Russian Tsars regarded themselves as Kings of Poland, the duchy belonged to them until World War I. Following the request of General Ivan Paskevich, who was the governor of Poland, Tsar Nicholas I of Russia gave permission for construction of the first railroad in the Russian Partition of Poland. The Warsaw–Vienna railway was completed in 1848, giving Łowicz rail connection with Warsaw, Kraków, Vienna and Wrocław. In 1861, Łowicz Główny railway station was built. Due to the construction of additional line to Koluszki (November 1866), Łowicz emerged as a rail hub, which contributed to its development. On July 26, 1863, during the January Uprising, a small Polish insurgent unit attacked the Russian troops stationed in the town, but soon withdrew.[10]

Following the

Territorial changes of Polish Voivodeships on April 1, 1938). In the interbellum Łowicz was visited by Presidents of Poland Stanisław Wojciechowski and Ignacy Mościcki.[6]

World War II

Monument to Poles, Jews and Soviet prisoners of war, imprisoned and killed in a local German forced labour camp

During the

Polish Army three days later. Between September 14–16, the town changed hands three times. Finally, Polish forces abandoned Łowicz in the night of September 16/17, 1939. German occupation
of Łowicz lasted until January 17, 1945. Over 5,000 inhabitants were killed during the war.

In 1940, during the Nazi

Jewish ghetto in Łowicz,[11] in order to confine its Jewish population for the purpose of persecution and exploitation.[12] The ghetto was liquidated in March 1941, when all its 8,000–8,200 inhabitants were transported in cattle trucks to Warsaw Ghetto,[13] the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2). From there, most victims were sent to Treblinka extermination camp.[14][15][16][17]

During the Warsaw Uprising, in August–September 1944, the Germans deported several thousands of Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Łowicz.[18] These Poles were mainly old people and women with children, many were sent to nearby villages, while over 3,400 stayed in the town as of mid-November 1944.[18]

Recent period

From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in

Cathedral Basilica complex was listed by the President of Poland as a Historic Monument of Poland.[2]

Points of interest

Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
  • Interior of the Cathedral Basilica
    Interior of the
    Cathedral Basilica
  • Piarist church
    Piarist church
  • Town hall
    Town hall
  • Holy Spirit Church
    Holy Spirit Church
  • Museum
    Museum
  • Mariavite church
    Mariavite church

Sports

Łowicz has a football team called Pelikan Łowicz, who languish in the lower divisions of the Polish leagues, and Księżak Łowicz - basketball team.

Arts and culture

The Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life (1999) via Gale Research cited Lowicz, Poland as known for its rainbow-colored cloth as part of folk art throughout Poland which includes pottery, glass, regional costumes, and paper cutouts.[19]

Notable people

Former home of General Stanisław Klicki

International relations

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Poland

Twin towns — Sister cities

Łowicz is

twinned
with:

See also

  • Agros Nova for information on the brand Łowicz and the factory

Notes and references

  1. ^ a b "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 26 August 2022. Data for territorial unit 1005011.
  2. ^ a b c Rozporządzenie Prezydenta Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej z dnia 22 października 2012 r. w sprawie uznania za pomnik historii "Łowicz - Bazylika Katedralna (dawna Kolegiata Prymasowska) pod wezwaniem Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Marii Panny"., Dz. U., 2012, No. 1239
  3. ^ "Museum in Lowicz - The History and the Collections". Muzeum Łowicz. Archived from the original on 2008-05-05. Retrieved 2008-04-30.
  4. ^ Sapp, Mark E. (February 22, 2008). "Welding Timeline 1900-1950". WeldingHistory.org. Archived from the original on August 3, 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-29.
  5. ^ Kowalska-Urbankowa, Zofia (1985). "Jarosław ze Skotnik Bogoria, arcybiskup gnieźnieński, prawodawca i dyplomata (zm. 1376)". Nasza Przeszłość (in Polish). 63. Instytut Teologiczny Księży Misjonarzy: 73.
  6. ^ a b c d "Łowicz. O miejscowości". Turystyka.org.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 1 July 2020.
  7. ^ "Informacja historyczna". Dresden-Warszawa (in Polish). Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  8. ^ Gembarzewski, Bronisław (1925). Rodowody pułków polskich i oddziałów równorzędnych od r. 1717 do r. 1831 (in Polish). Warszawa: Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej. pp. 20, 26–29.
  9. ^
    ISBN 83-88513-00-1
    .
  10. ^ Zieliński, Stanisław (1913). Bitwy i potyczki 1863-1864. Na podstawie materyałów drukowanych i rękopiśmiennych Muzeum Narodowego w Rapperswilu (in Polish). Rapperswil: Fundusz Wydawniczy Muzeum Narodowego w Rapperswilu. p. 39.
  11. Museum of the History of the Polish Jews  (in English), as well as "Getta Żydowskie," by Gedeon
    ,  (in Polish) and "Ghetto List" by Michael Peters at www.deathcamps.org/occupation/ghettolist.htm  (in English). Accessed July 12, 2011.
  12. ^ "The War Against The Jews." The Holocaust Chronicle, 2009. Chicago, Il. Accessed June 21, 2011.
  13. Instytut Adama Mickiewicza
    .  (in Polish)
  14. ^ Warsaw Ghetto, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Washington, D.C.
  15. ^ Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust, University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986, Google Print, p.13.
  16. ^ Gunnar S. Paulsson, "The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland," Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol.7, Nos.1&2, 1998, pp.19-44. Published by Frank Cass, London.
  17. ^ Edward Victor, "Ghettos and Other Jewish Communities." Judaica Philatelic. Accessed June 20, 2011.
  18. ^ a b "Warszawiacy na terenie powiatu łowickiego". Muzeum Dulag 121 (in Polish). Retrieved 13 December 2020.
  19. ^ Gale, Timothy L. (Ed). (1997). The Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life. Volume 4: Europe. Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research.
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