Gniewkowo | |
|---|---|
_ID_739463.jpg) Town hall in Gniewkowo | |
 Coat of arms | |
  Gniewkowo | |
| Coordinates:52°54′N18°25′E / 52.900°N 18.417°E /52.900; 18.417 | |
| Country |  Poland |
| Voivodeship | Kuyavian-Pomeranian |
| County | Inowrocław |
| Gmina | Gniewkowo |
| First mentioned | 1185 |
| Town rights | 1268 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Ilona Wodniak-Kuraszkiewicz |
| Area | |
• Total | 9.18 km2 (3.54 sq mi) |
| Population (2006) | |
• Total | 7,254 |
| • Density | 790/km2 (2,050/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 88-140 |
| Area code | +48 52 |
| Car plates | CIN |
| Website | http://www.gniewkowo.com.pl |
Gniewkowo (Polish pronunciation:[ɡɲɛfˈkɔvɔ]) (German:Argenau) is a town inInowrocław County,Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-centralPoland with a population of 7,301 inhabitants (2005).[1] It is located within the historic region ofKuyavia.
Gniewkowo is located to the south of theBydgoszcz forest on route 52, 15 km northeast ofInowrocław and 23 km southwest ofToruń.
_ID_601858.jpg)
Archaeological excavations have shown that the site was already populated by theBronze Age. The first historical mention of the town dates from 1185. In 1268 the town was grantedcity rights. In 1314Siemomysł of Inowrocław’s largerKuyavia duchy was divided among his three sons;Casimir III of Kuyavia inherited the Gniewkowo region which became a small autonomous duchy. TheTeutonic Knights laid siege to Gniewkowo in 1332 during theirwar with Poland. To avoid capture Casimir set fire to hisstronghold and abandoned the town. He would not regain control of the duchy until theTreaty of Kalisz in 1343.
In 1364/1365,Władysław the White mortgaged Gniewkowo to Polish KingCasimir III the Great. In 1408 the city hosted a meeting between Polish KingWładysław II Jagiełło and theTeutonic Knights over the disputedDobrzyń Land. From 1409 to 1411 Gniewkowo played an important role in thePolish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War. Gniewkowo was aroyal town of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Inowrocław County in theInowrocław Voivodeship in theGreater Poland Province.[2]
Gniewkowo was ravaged by several fires during the 16th century, limiting its development. During the 17th and the 18th centuries, wars withSweden and subsequent outbreaks of diseases laid waste to the town.
Gniewkowo was annexed byPrussia in 1772 after thefirst partition of Poland (but from 1807 to 1815 Gniewkowo was part of theDuchy of Warsaw), during which time the economy began to develop. Starting in 1843, a road linked the city toInowrocław andToruń.Jews andGermans became more and more prominent, while the localPolish population suffered from an official policy ofdiscrimination and forcedGermanisation. Part ofGermany from 1871, in 1879 the German Imperial administration, following theOtto von Bismarck's policy of forced Germanisation of ancient Polish territories and theirSlavic peoples, changed the name of the town to a GermanArgenau. Ageneral strike broke out afterGerman became the required official language for religious classes. Electricity became available citywide in 1908.
AfterWorld War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and afterwards theGreater Poland Uprising broke out, which goal was to reintegrate the region and town with the reborn Polish state. On January 17, 1920, after over a year of fighting, Gniewkowo was finally recaptured by Poles, and thus rejoinedPoland.[3] The town suffered greatly during the Polish economic crisis that followedWorld War I. On the eve ofWorld War II theunemployment rate was 70%.
During the Germaninvasion of Poland, which startedWorld War II, the town was captured by Germany on September 2, 1939.[4] During the subsequentGerman occupation the local Polish population was subjected tovarious crimes, including massacres,expulsions, deportations toforced labour and toNazi concentration camps.[4] Already in September 1939, the Germans destroyed the pre-war monument to the Greater Poland Uprising participants.[3] Around 4,000 Polish civilians taken from Gniewkowo and the nearby cities ofInowrocław,Bydgoszcz andToruń were executed by the Nazi Germans in the woods surrounding the town. Among the victims were Polish teachers, principals, farmers, musicians, railwaymen, local officials (seeIntelligenzaktion).[5] Inhabitants of Gniewkowo were also among 56 Poles massacred in a prison in Inowrocław on October 22–23, 1939.[5] In 1944–1945, the Germans also operated a female subcamp of theStutthof concentration camp in the town.[6] Polish andSoviet troops took Gniewkowo on January 21, 1945. The town was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, and thus begun the 44 years of Communist Poland.
In 1989 first, since 1939, free and democratic electione were held in Gniewkowo as in the rest of democratic Republic of Poland. Between 1978 and 1998 Gniewkowo belonged to BydgoszczVoivodeship and since the 1998 administrative reform belongs toKuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.
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