Szczecinek

Coordinates: 53°43′N 16°41′E / 53.717°N 16.683°E / 53.717; 16.683
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Szczecinek
Panorama of the town
Panorama of the town
Car plates
ZSZ
Highways
National roads
Voivodeship roads
Websitehttp://www.szczecinek.pl

Szczecinek (Polish: [ʂt͡ʂɛˈt͡ɕinɛk] ⓘ; German: Neustettin) is a historic city in Middle Pomerania, northwestern Poland, with a population of more than 40,000 (2011). Formerly in the Koszalin Voivodeship (1950–1998), it has been the capital of Szczecinek County in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999. It is an important railroad junction, located along the main Poznań - Kołobrzeg line, which crosses less important lines to Chojnice and Słupsk. The town's total area is 48.63 square kilometres (18.78 square miles).

The turbulent history of Szczecinek reaches back to the High Middle Ages, when the area was ruled by Pomeranian dukes and princes. The majority of the city's architecture survived World War II and, subsequently, its entire Old Town was proclaimed a national heritage monument of Poland.

Location

Szczecinek lies in eastern part of

Gałowo, Marcelin, Godzimierz, Turowo, Parsęcko, Buczek and Żółtnica
.

Further information on the river: Nizica

History and etymology

Szczecinek Castle, former seat of local Pomeranian Dukes
Town Hall at the marketplace
Early 20th-century view of the St. Mary church

In the Middle Ages a Slavic stronghold existed in present-day Szczecinek.[1] It was part of the early Polish state in the 10th century, and as a result of the 12th-century fragmentation of Poland, it became part of the separate Duchy of Pomerania.

In 1310, the

Latin: Stetin Nova). It was also known as "Klein Stettin" (Polish: Mały Szczecin, German: Klein Stettin). In 1707 the town was known in Polish as Nowoszczecin, while the Mały Szczecin name gradually developed into the modern name Szczecinek.[2]

The town was fortified to face the

Poland) and the united Duchy of Pomerania
(until 1618).

On 15 September 1423, the "great day of Neustettin", the Pomeranian dukes, the

Eric II of Pomerania who supported the Teutonic Knights.[3]

In 1601 a Polish school was established, and in 1640 a

high schools in Pomerania.[4] During the Thirty Years' War it was captured and plundered by the Swedes and Austrians. After the war, from 1653, the town was part of Brandenburg, from 1701 of Prussia and from 1871 to 1945 of Germany. During the Seven Years' War, in 1759 it was plundered by the Russians. In 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars and Polish national liberation fights, the town was captured by Poles led by Tomasz Łubieński.[3]

In 1881 Abraham Springer, great-grandfather of

TV presenter Jerry Springer and a prominent member of the town's Jewish community launched an unsuccessful attempt to sue agitator Dr Ernst Henrici, claiming that an inflammatory anti-semitic speech in the town led directly to the burning down of the synagogue on 18 February of that year.[citation needed
]

Regional Museum in Szczecinek

In 1914 the Regional Museum was established. In 1923 the Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit was built, then called the "Polish Church", as it was co-financed by local Poles.[5]

After the

Fall of Communism in the 1980s. The town's German population was expelled in accordance with the Potsdam Agreement, and it was repopulated with Poles, expellees from former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and settlers from central Poland.[3] The plundered agricultural machinery factory was relaunched by Poles in July 1945.[6] The Polish anti-communist resistance ("cursed soldiers") was active in the town, and many of its members were arrested and sentenced to prison by the communists.[7] The last "cursed soldier" of Szczecinek, Maria Sosnowska, died in 2018.[7]

In 2009 the town limits were expanded by including the neighbouring villages of Świątki and Trzesieka as new districts.

Bohaterów Warszawy - promenade dedicated to the war heroes of Warsaw
Józef Piłsudski monument by local sculptor Wiesław Adamski
Music school

Education

  • Duchess Elizabeth Secondary School
  • Vocational School of Economics in Szczecinek
  • Vocational Technical School in Szczecinek
  • Vocational School of Agriculture in Świątki
  • Private Secondary School
  • Social Secondary School
  • Społeczna Wyższa Szkoła Przedsiębiorczości i Zarządzania in Łódź, branch in Szczecinek
  • Koszalin University of Technology, branch in Szczecinek

Major corporations

  • Grupa Kronospan Szczecinek
  • KPPD Szczecinek SA
  • Schneider Electric Poland

Historical population

  • 1940: 19,900 inhabitants (mostly Germans)
  • 1945: 11,800 inhabitants (8,300 Poles and 3,500 Germans)
  • 1950: 15,100 inhabitants (mostly Poles)
  • 1960: 22,800 inhabitants
  • 1970: 28,700 inhabitants
  • 1975: 32,900 inhabitants
  • 1980: 35,700 inhabitants
  • 1990: 41,400 inhabitants
  • 1995: 42,300 inhabitants
  • 2000: 38,928 inhabitants
  • 2017: 40,292 inhabitants

Cuisine

The officially protected traditional food of Szczecinek (as designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland) is krówka szczecinecka, a local type of krówka (traditional Polish candy).[8]

Notable residents

Lothar Bücher
Aleksander Wolszczan

International relations

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

Szczecinek is

twinned
with:

References

  1. ^ Czesław Piskorski, Pomorze Zachodnie, mały przewodnik, Wydawnictwo Sport i Turystyka, Warszawa, 1980, p. 261 (in Polish)
  2. ISBN 9788304007048
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e "Historia i zabytki". Oficjalna strona Urzędu Miasta Szczecinek (in Polish). Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  4. ^ "K.Berezowski: Plan lekcji z 1705 roku! Szkoła liczyła 11 uczniów..." Szczecinek.com (in Polish). 24 April 2018. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  5. ^ "Historia parafii". Parafia Ducha Świętego w Szczecinku (in Polish). Retrieved 11 February 2020.
  6. ^ a b c "Stary Szczecinek: Zakłady Polam". Temat Szczecinecki (in Polish). 23 January 2014. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Zmarła Maria Sosnowska, ostatni szczecinecki Żołnierz Wyklęty". Temat Szczecinecki (in Polish). 5 July 2018. Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  8. ^ "Krówka szczecinecka". Ministerstwo Rolnictwa i Rozwoju Wsi - Portal Gov.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 3 July 2021.
  9. ^ "Bucher, Lothar" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 04 (11th ed.). 1911.

External links

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