Gniezno

Coordinates: 52°32′09″N 17°35′45″E / 52.53583°N 17.59583°E / 52.53583; 17.59583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Gniezno
Royal Capital City of Gniezno
Stołeczne Królewskie Miasto Gniezno
  • Left to right: Lake Jelonek
  • Franciscan Church
  • Main Post Office
  • Details of the Gniezno Cathedral
  • Museum of the Origins of the Polish State
Dfb
Highways
National roads
Websitehttp://www.Gniezno.eu

Gniezno (

Dagome Iudex
, as the capital of Piast Poland.

Gniezno is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Gniezno, the country's oldest archdiocese, founded in 1000, and its archbishop is the primate of Poland, making the city the country's ecclesiastical capital. The city is the administrative seat of Gniezno County (powiat).

Geography

Gniezno is one of the historic centers of the Greater Poland region, the cradle of the Polish state. Like Rome, Gniezno was founded on seven hills, including the Lech Hill [pl], which is the location of the Gniezno Cathedral, and the Panieńskie Hill, which is the location of the Rynek (Market Square). Five lakes are located within the city limits: Winiary, Jelonek, Świętokrzyskie, Koszyk, Zacisze.

History

Medieval seal of Gniezno

There are archaeological traces of human settlement since the late

Slavic religion
. The ducal stronghold was founded just before 940 on Lech Hill, and surrounded by some fortified suburbs and open settlements.

Legend of Lech, Czech and Rus

Main article:
Lech, Czech, and Rus

According to the Polish version of a legend, three brothers went hunting together but each of them followed a different prey and eventually they all traveled in different directions. Rus went to the east, Čech headed to the west to settle on the

coat-of-arms. The white eagle remains a symbol of Poland to this day, and the colors of the eagle and the setting sun are depicted in Poland's coat of arms, as well as its flag, with a white stripe on top for the eagle, and a red stripe on the bottom for the sunset. According to Wielkopolska Chronicle (13th century), Slavs are descendants of Pan, a Pannonian prince. He had three sons – Lech (the youngest), Rus, and Čech (the oldest), who decided to settle west, north, and east.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Cradle of the Polish state

Around 940 Gniezno, being an important pagan cult center, became one of the main fortresses of the early Piast rulers, along with aforementioned fortresses at

Saint Adalbert
in a church, newly built on the Hill, to underline Gniezno's importance as the religious centre and capital of his kingdom.

Congress of Gniezno

It is here that the

Bolesław I the Brave, Duke of Poland, received Holy Roman Emperor Otto III.[11] The emperor and the Polish duke celebrated the foundation of the Polish ecclesiastical province (archbishopric) in Gniezno, along with newly established bishoprics in Kołobrzeg for Pomerania; Wrocław for Silesia; Kraków for Lesser Poland[12] in addition to the bishopric in Poznań for western Greater Poland
, which was established in 968.

Royal coronation site

The 10th-century

Bolesław II the Generous
, who was crowned king here in 1076.

In the next centuries Gniezno evolved as a regional seat of the eastern part of Greater Poland, and in 1238 municipal autonomy was granted by the duke Władysław Odonic. Gniezno was again the coronation site in 1295 and 1300.

Regional site of Greater Poland

King Władysław IV Vasa confirms the old privileges of Gniezno, 1635

After an administrative reform Gniezno, as a

Swedish invasion wars of the 17th–18th centuries and by a plague in 1708–1710. All this caused depopulation and economic decline, but the city was soon revived during the 18th century to become the capital of the Gniezno Voivodeship within the larger Greater Poland Province in 1768. Gniezno remained one of the main cultural centres of the Polish Kingdom.[12] The 11th Polish Infantry Regiment and 1st Polish National Cavalry Brigade were stationed there in 1790 and 1792, respectively.[13]

Late modern period

19th-century painting of Gniezno

Gniezno was annexed by the

Polish resistance against Germanisation policies, various Polish organizations and publishing houses were located there.[2] In 1857, Jews accounted for 27 percent of the population, which number decreased by emigration to more developed towns of Germany to 14.5 percent in 1871.[17]

Following the

Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) and the Treaty of Versailles the town became part of the Second Polish Republic and reverted to its original name of Gniezno. 31 Polish insurgents from the city died in the Greater Poland Uprising.[18] Its citizen-soldiers joined the Polish army fighting the Bolsheviks during the Polish–Soviet War.[19] The first Polish folk high school was established in the present-day district of Dalki in 1921.[20]

World War II

Memorial at the site of a German execution of 24 Poles in November 1939 in the Dalki district

During the

gas van by the Lange Commando, a sub-unit of Einsatzkommando 2.[23] Despite this, Gniezno remained a center of Polish resistance,[2] including the Tajna Organizacja Narodowa (Secret National Organization), which was founded in the city itself.[24] Its commander Maksymilian Sikorski was eventually imprisoned in concentration camps.[25]

After the city was seized by the

Fall of Communism
in the 1980s.

Post-war period

Gniezno during the visit of Pope John Paul II in 1979

In August 1980, employees of local factories joined the nationwide anti-communist strikes,[26] which led to the foundation of the Solidarity organization, which played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland. In 1979 and 1997, Pope John Paul II visited Gniezno. During the second visit, celebrations took place on the millennial anniversary of the death of St. Adalbert with the participation of presidents of seven Central European countries and 280,000 pilgrims from Poland and the world.[12] In 2000, the millennial anniversary of the Congress of Gniezno was celebrated and on this occasion the Sejm was held in Gniezno, the only one held outside of Warsaw in recent decades.

Archbishops of Gniezno

View of Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Adalbert. On the right side - church under the invocation of St. John the Baptist
Main article:
archbishop of Gniezno

Gniezno's

Roman Catholic archbishop is traditionally the Primate of Poland (Prymas Polski). After the partitions of Poland the see was often combined with others, first with Poznań and then with Warsaw. In 1992 Pope John Paul II reorganized the Polish hierarchy and the city once again had a separate bishop. Cardinal Józef Glemp, who had been archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and retained Warsaw, was designated to remain Primate until his retirement, but afterward the Archbishop of Gniezno, at present Wojciech Polak
, would again be Primate of Poland.

Royal coronations in Gniezno cathedral

Panorama of Gniezno. 19th century

Demographics

Historical population
YearPop.±%
191225,339—    
198062,400+146.3%
199070,400+12.8%
199571,000+0.9%
202166,769−6.0%

Sights

Gniezno Old Town

The landmarks of Gniezno include:

  • Gniezno Doors in the Cathedral
    Gniezno Doors in the Cathedral
  • Coffin of Adalbert of Prague in the Cathedral
    Coffin of Adalbert of Prague in the Cathedral
  • Market Square (Rynek)
    Market Square (Rynek)
  • Holy Trinity church
    Holy Trinity church
  • Gothic Saint John the Baptist church in winter
    Gothic Saint John the Baptist church in winter
  • Saint Lawrence church
    Saint Lawrence church
  • Monument of King Bolesław I the Brave with the Cathedral in the background
    Monument of King Bolesław I the Brave with the Cathedral in the background
  • Museum of Archdiocese in Gniezno
    Museum of Archdiocese in Gniezno
  • Episcopal palace of Primates of Poland
    Episcopal palace of Primates of Poland
  • Saint George's Church
    Saint George's Church

Education

Arts and culture

Aleksander Fredro Theatre

Sports

The city's most popular sports club is motorcycle speedway team Start Gniezno. The annual speedway Bolesław Chrobry Tournament is held in Gniezno. The city's main football club is Mieszko Gniezno. The E11 European long distance path for hikers passes through Gniezno.

Notable people

Regional court

Twin towns – sister cities

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

Gniezno is

twinned with:[27]

Former twin towns:

In March 2022, Gniezno severed its ties with the Russian city of Sergiyev Posad as a response to the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[29]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 15 August 2022. Data for territorial unit 3003011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "Gniezno". Encyklopedia PWN (in Polish). Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  3. ^
    ISBN 1-74059-522-X
    . Retrieved 26 December 2010. (in English)
  4. ^ Czesław Łuczak, Kazimierz Tymieniecki, Europa, Słowiańszczyzna, Polska. 1970. p. 296.
  5. ^ Brygida Kurbisówna, Studia nad Kroniką wielkopolską, Poznańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk, Poznań 1952.
  6. ^ Adam Fałowski, Bogdan Sendero, Biesiada słowiańska, Universitas, Kraków 1992, p. 40.
  7. ^ Kultura polski średniowiecznej XIV-XV w. pod red. B. Geremka, Wydawnictwo Naukowe Semper, Warszawa 1997, p. 651.
  8. ISBN 978-83-242-1275-0
    .
  9. ^ Kronika Dalimila [in:] LitDok Europa Środkowo-Wschodnia, Herder-Institut, Marburg.
  10. ^ Szymański, Freelance Design - Marcin (31 July 2010). "Tajemnice Wzgórza Lecha Gniezno - Moje Gniezno - Portal Informacyjny Gniezna". moje-gniezno.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 13 March 2018.
  11. ISBN 3-525-52318-1, p. 91 (in German, limited online preview
    )
  12. ^ a b c d e f "Historia". Urząd Miejski w Gnieźnie (in Polish). Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  13. ^ Gembarzewski, Bronisław (1925). Rodowody pułków polskich i oddziałów równorzędnych od r. 1717 do r. 1831 (in Polish). Warszawa: Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej. pp. 7, 29.
  14. ISBN 83-86079-02-9
    .
  15. ISBN 83-86079-02-9
    .
  16. ^ Gembarzewski, Bronisław (1925). Rodowody pułków polskich i oddziałów równorzędnych od r. 1717 do r. 1831 (in Polish). Warszawa: Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej. p. 55.
  17. ^ "Gniezno". yivoencyclopedia.org. The Yivo encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  18. ^ Olszewski, Wiesław; Jastrząb, Łukasz (2008). Lista strat Powstania Wielkopolskiego od 27.12.1918 r. do 8.03.1920 r. (in Polish). Koszalin: Wydawnictwo Uczelniane Politechniki Koszalińskiej. p. 62.
  19. ISBN 83-85003-97-5
    . multiple pages (individual biographies) e.g. p. 275
  20. ISSN 1233-2224
    .
  21. Biblioteka Jagiellońska
    . p. 60.
  22. ^ Kostkiewicz, p. 59
  23. ISBN 080786160X
    .
  24. ISSN 1641-9561
    .
  25. ^ Pietrowicz, p. 33
  26. ISSN 1641-9561
    .
  27. ^ "International collaboration". gmiezno.eu. Gniezno. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  28. ^ "Zustersteden". Veendam. Retrieved 3 May 2014.
  29. ^ "Gniezno zrywa umowę partnerską z rosyjskim miastem Siergijev Posad" (in Polish). Retrieved 13 March 2022.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gniezno.
Wikisource has several original texts related to Gniezno.
  • Gniezno travel guide from Wikivoyage
  • Gniezno homepage (English and German version also available), The official site of the Gniezno City's Administration, from which much of the above was taken and adapted.
  • Gniezno Poviat The official site of the Gniezno County, (English, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Russian version also available)
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