Piotrków Trybunalski

Coordinates: 51°24′N 19°41′E / 51.400°N 19.683°E / 51.400; 19.683
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
"Petrikau" redirects here. For the town in Belarus, see Pyetrykaw.
Piotrków Trybunalski
Market Square
Royal Castle
Exaltation of the Holy Cross church and Bernardine Monastery
Left to right: Market Square, Royal Castle, Holy Cross Church and Bernardine Monastery
UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
97–300 to 97–312
Area code+48 044
Car platesEP
Highways
National roads
Websitehttp://www.piotrkow.pl

Piotrków Trybunalski ([ˈpʲɔtrkuf trɨbuˈnalskʲi] ⓘ; also known by alternative names), often simplified to Piotrków, is a city in central Poland with 71,252 inhabitants (2021).[1] It is the capital of Piotrków County and the second-largest city in the Łódź Voivodeship.

Founded in the late

tenements, churches, synagogues and the medieval Royal Castle
.

Etymology and other names

According to tradition, but not confirmed by historical sources, Piotrków was founded by Piotr Włostowic, a powerful 12th century magnate from

Yiddish as פּעטריקעװ or Petrikev,[2] in German as Petrikau, and in Russian
as Петроков or Petrokov.

Location, demographics and statistics

Poniatowski Park

Piotrków Trybunalski is situated in the middle-west part (Piotrków Plains) of the Łódź Uplands. The population of the city is approximately 80,000 and its area is nearly 68 square kilometres (26 sq mi). The landscape of the Piotrków region and its geological structure was formed during the glaciation of 180,000–128,000 years ago. There are hardly any forests on the Piotrków Plains.

Two rivers cross the region, the Wolbórka and the

meridional line three km west of Piotrków. Two small rivers, the Strawa and the Strawka flow through the city, and it is between their valleys that the first settlement of Piotrków was founded in the early Middle Ages
. Recently two more rivers have been included within the boundary of the city area—the Wierzejka, which in the western part of the city forms a reservoir, and the Śrutowy Dołek to the south of Piotrków.

The city is 200 m (656.17 

above sea level
. The average temperature during the year is about 8 °C (46 °F), the coldest month is January (ranging from −20 to 2.5 °C (−4.0 to 36.5 °F)), the warmest is July (with 18 °C (64 °F) on average). Yearly rainfall is from 550 to 600 mm (22 to 24 in). The sandy soil of the region is not fertile.

History

Middle Ages

In the early Middle Ages the Piotrków region was part of the province of

Masovia to Silesia
.

Polish medallion from 1978 commemorating the 400th anniversary of the Crown Tribunal, then the highest court of Poland in Piotrków Trybunalski.

During the 13th century, apart from the tribunals, Polish provincial princes made Piotrków the seat of some assemblies of the

Władysław I the Elbow-high, granted Piotrków civic rights
, because in documents from the beginning of the 14th century he mentions "civitate nostra Petricouiensi".

The first certificate of foundation and the other documents were burnt in a great fire which destroyed the city around 1400. The privileges and rights were re-granted by King Władysław II Jagiełło in 1404. The city walls were built during the reign of King Casimir III the Great, and after the great fire, they were rebuilt at the beginning of the 15th century. During the reign of Casimir III, many expelled German Jews from the Holy Roman Empire migrated to the town, which grew to have one of the largest Jewish settlements in the kingdom.

Gothic-Renaissance Royal Castle, now a museum

Between 1354 and 1567 the city held general assemblies of Polish knights, and general or elective meetings of the Polish

Jagiellon dynasty were elected there). In Piotrków, two Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order pledged allegiance to Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1469 and 1470. It was in the city of Piotrków that the Polish Parliament was given its final structure with the division into an Upper House and Lower Chamber in 1493. King John I Albert published his "Piotrków privilege" on 26 May 1493, which expanded the privileges of the szlachta at the expense of the bourgeoisie
and the peasantry.

Modern period

Piotrków became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. When the seat of the Parliament was moved to Warsaw, the town became the seat of the highest court of Poland, the Crown Tribunal, and trials were held there from 1578 to 1793; the highest Lithuanian court was held in Grodno. Piotrków's Jewish population was expelled in 1578 and only allowed back a century later. The town became a post station in 1684. Around 1705, German settlers (often Swabians) arrived in the town's vicinity and founded villages; they largely retained their customs and language until 1945.

Piotrków in 1657

While the importance of Piotrków in the political life of the country had contributed to its development in the 16th century, the city declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, due to fires, epidemics,

wars against Sweden, and finally the Partitions of Poland. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the city in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route.[3]

The first official inventory of important buildings in Poland, A General View of the Nature of Ancient Monuments in the Kingdom of Poland, led by Kazimierz Stronczyński from 1844 to 1855, describes the Great Synagogue of Piotrków as one of Poland's architecturally notable buildings.[4]

In 1793, the

Napoleon in 1815, Piotrków became part of Congress Poland, a puppet state of the Russian Empire
.

When the

Warsaw-Vienna railway
was built in 1846, there was a slight increase in the economic and industrial development of Piotrków.

Memorial plaque at the site of the former prison for Polish insurgents of 1863–1864

In January 1863, the Polish January Uprising broke out. Among local Polish insurgents were many young people and Poles conscripted into the Russian army, who were stationed in the city.[5] The Russians established a prison for captured insurgents in Piotrków.[5] Thousands of Poles passed through the prison, were subjected to flagellation and tortures, and then either deported to the Warsaw Citadel or to Siberia, or executed in Piotrków.[5] Two insurgents, wanting to escape from torture, committed suicide by jumping out of the prison windows.[5] As punishment for supporting the uprising, the Russians closed down the Bernardine monastery in 1864, and the last Bernardine monks were expelled in 1867.[5]

In 1867 the Russian authorities formed the

1905 Russian Revolution
.

Old Town in the 1930s

During World War I, Piotrków was occupied by Austria-Hungary. From 1915 to 1916, it was a center for Polish patriotic activity. The city was a seat of the Military Department of the National Committee, and a headquarters for the Polish Legions, which were voluntary troops organized by Józef Piłsudski, Władysław Sikorski and others to fight against Russia. Piotrków became part of restored independent Poland in 1918, following the defeat of the Central Powers in the war.

In the

Jewish settlement and until the Holocaust a thriving Hebrew
printing and publishing industry.

World War II

roundup
in German-occupied Piotrków Trybunalski

During the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, Piotrków was the setting for fierce fighting between the Polish 19th Infantry Division and the 16th Panzer Corps of the German Wehrmacht on 5 September 1939. On the next day, German troops committed a massacre of Polish prisoners of war, including 19 officers, in the present-day neighbourhood of Moryca (see also German atrocities committed against Polish prisoners of war).[7] The Einsatzgruppe II then entered the city to commit various crimes against the population.[8] The town was occupied by Nazi Germany for the following six years.

In autumn of 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of dozens of Poles, including teachers, local activists, judges, parliamentarians, editors and bank employees, however some were later released.

Katyń massacre in April–May 1940.[15]

Katyń massacre

As early as October 1939 Piotrków became the site of the first Jewish ghetto of World War II set up in occupied Poland. Approximately 25,000 people from Piotrków and the nearby towns and villages were imprisoned there. During the Holocaust 22,000 were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp, while 3,000 were imprisoned in other Nazi concentration camps. A personal account of the Holocaust, In the Mouth of the Wolf details the escape of the author Rose Zar (née Rose Guterman) from the Piotrków Ghetto and hiding in plain sight, by working for the Wehrmacht and the SS. The secret Polish Council to Aid Jews "Żegota", established by the Polish resistance movement, operated in the city.[16]

From the first months of the war, Piotrków was a center for

Armia Krajowa, or Home Army. In the summer of 1944, the 25th Infantry Regiment of the Home Army was formed in the district; it was the largest military unit of the Łódź Voivodeship, and fought against the Germans until November 1944. In the city and district, there were also other partisan groups: the Military Troops (connected with the Polish Socialist Party), People's Guard and People's Army (Polish Workers' Party), Peasants' Battalions (Polish People's Party), the National Military Organization and the National Armed Forces (National Party). In 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported over 15,000 Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Piotrków.[17] Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children.[17] After the fall of the uprising, the headquarters of the Polish Red Cross
was temporarily located in the local Royal Castle from October 1944 to January 1945.

On 18 January 1945 the

Fall of Communism in the 1980s. Anti-communist partisans
continued to fight in the vicinity in the following years.

Recent times

Adam Próchnik Municipal Library

From 1949 to 1970, Piotrków was transformed into an industrial center.

Piotrków remained a district capital in the Łódź Voivodeship, until 1975. Then, following the changes in the administrative division of the country, the city became the capital of the new Piotrków Voivodeship, thus regaining the status of an important administrative, educational and cultural center of Poland. In 1999, the Piotrków Voivodeship was dissolved and Piotrków became the capital of Piotrków County within the Łódź Voivodeship.

Economy

Piotrków, thanks to its location, is known as the second largest "logistic center" after Warsaw. There is a high concentration of warehouses and distribution centers around the city. The biggest distribution centers are:

  • Prologis Park Piotrkow I and Prologis Park Piotrkow II owned by
    ProLogis
  • IKEA Distribution Center owned by IKEA
  • Logistic City – Piotrków Distribution Center owned by local concern Emerson
  • Poland Central
Focus Mall shopping center.

In Piotrków are also located:

and many small and medium textile processing factories.

Transport

Main train station

Piotrków lies almost in the center of Poland. It has a train station on the

PKP rail line 1 from Warsaw to Częstochowa. Direct trains go among others to Kraków, Zakopane, Katowice, Bielsko-Biała, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdynia, Olsztyn and Białystok
.

Roads

Eastern bypass

A highway, an expressway and three national roads cross Piotrków:

Airports

There is a small airfield for light passenger aircraft in Piotrków. The nearest airport is

Katowice International Airport
about 137 km (85 mi) from Piotrków.

Educational institutions

Bolesław I the Brave High School, founded in 1675

Politics

High Court of Piotrków

Piotrków Trybunalski/Skierniewice constituency

Members of Parliament (

Sejm
) elected by the Piotrków/Skierniewice constituency

  • Antoni Macierewicz,
    Law and Justice
  • Dariusz Seliga,
    Law and Justice
  • Marcin Witko,
    Law and Justice
  • Robert Telus,
    Law and Justice
  • Elżbieta Radziszewska, Civic Platform
  • Dorota Rutkowska, Civic Platform
  • Marek Domaracki, TR
  • Jacek Nibliecky, NPD
  • Krystyna Ozga, PSL
  • Artur Ostrowski, SLD

Sports

Notable people

Birthplace and childhood home of Stefan Rowecki
Yisrael Meir Lau, the Chief Rabbi of Israel, was born in Piotrków

International relations

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

Twin towns – sister cities

Piotrków Trybunalski is

twinned
with:

Piotrków Trybunalski is also partnered with:

Image gallery

  • Baroque Jesuit Church
    Baroque Jesuit Church
  • Inside the Old Town
    Inside the Old Town
  • St. James Parish Church
    St. James Parish Church
  • Grodzka street near the Market Square
    Grodzka street near the Market Square
  • Szewska street in the Old Town
    Szewska street in the Old Town
  • Rwańska Street in the Old Town with the Evangelical Church
    Rwańska Street in the Old Town with the Evangelical Church
  • Great Synagogue
    Great Synagogue
  • Remaining old city walls
    Remaining old city walls
  • Municipal Culture Center
    Municipal Culture Center
  • Nicolaus Copernicus Monument
    Nicolaus Copernicus Monument
  • Piotrkowska Manufaktura, a former textile factory
    Piotrkowska Manufaktura, a former textile factory
  • Bernardine Monastery
    Bernardine Monastery

References

  1. ^ a b "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 14 August 2022. Data for territorial unit 1062000.
  2. ^ Beider, Alexander (2012). "Eastern Yiddish Toponyms of German Origin" (PDF). Yiddish Studies Today. ISBN 978-3-943460-09-4, ISSN 2194-8879 (düsseldorf university press, Düsseldorf 2012). Retrieved 26 December 2023.
  3. ^ "Informacja historyczna". Dresden-Warszawa (in Polish). Retrieved 3 January 2021.
  4. ^ Heaven's Gates; Wooden synagogues in the Territories of the Former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Maria and Kazimierz Piechotka, Wydawnictwo Krupski i S-ka, Warsaw, 2004, p. 174
  5. ^ a b c d e f "Powstanie styczniowe w Piotrkowie". ePiotrkow.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  6. ISBN 0-299-19464-7, Google Print, p.16
  7. ISSN 1641-9561
    .
  8. ^ Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. p. 58.
  9. ^ Wardzyńska, p. 249
  10. ^ Wardzyńska, p. 250
  11. ^ Wardzyńska, p. 251-252, 266
  12. ^ Wardzyńska, p. 252
  13. ^ a b Wardzyńska, p. 267
  14. ^ Wardzyńska, p. 261
  15. ^ "O piotrkowianach zamordowanych w Katyniu". Piotrków Trybunalski - oficjalny portal miejski (in Polish). Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  16. ^ Datner, Szymon (1968). Las sprawiedliwych (in Polish). Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza. p. 69.
  17. ^ a b "Transporty z obozu Dulag 121". Muzeum Dulag 121 (in Polish). Retrieved 6 September 2021.
  18. ^ "Piotrków: Pamiątkowa tablica ku czci Sendlerowej". ePiotrkow.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  19. ^ "Neath Port Talbot Twin Towns". Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council. Archived from the original on 2013-08-22. Retrieved 2013-08-22.

External links

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Piotrków Trybunalski.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Piotrków Trybunalski.
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