Rumia Rëmiô (Kashubian) | |
|---|---|
 Aerial view | |
 Flag  Coat of arms | |
  Rumia | |
| Coordinates:54°34′0″N18°24′0″E / 54.56667°N 18.40000°E /54.56667; 18.40000 | |
| Country |  Poland |
| Voivodeship | Pomeranian |
| County | Wejherowo |
| Gmina | Rumia(urban gmina) |
| First mentioned | 1224 |
| Town rights | 1954 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Michał Pasieczny |
| Area | |
• City | 30.10 km2 (11.62 sq mi) |
| Population (2023) | |
• City | 53,316 |
| • Density | 1,771/km2 (4,588/sq mi) |
| • Metro | 130,000 |
| Time zone | UTC+1 (CET) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC+2 (CEST) |
| Postal code | 84-230 |
| Area code | +48 58 |
| Car plates | GWE |
| Website | http://www.rumia.eu |
Rumia (Polish:[ˈrumja]ⓘ;Kashubian:Rëmiô;German:Rahmel) is a town in northernPoland, in theWejherowo County inPomeranian Voivodeship, with approx. 53,000 inhabitants.[1] It is a part of theKashubian Tricity (Rumia,Reda,Wejherowo) and a suburb part of the metropolitan area of theTricity. It is situated inKashubia in the historic region ofPomerania. It is connected by well-developed railway and highway connections to theTricity, an urban agglomeration of almost 1 million inhabitants on the coast ofGdańsk Bay.
SlavicLechitic settlements existed in present-day Rumia in theEarly Middle Ages.[2] The region formed part of Poland since the establishment of the state in the 10th century. The village of Rumia (thenRumina) was first mentioned in 1224 when it was awarded byŚwiętopełk II, later duke ofEastern Pomerania to theCistercian convent inOliwa (today part ofGdańsk). The name of Rumia was applied also to the neighbourhoods of Janowo and Biała Rzeka. In 1285Mestwin II,duke of Pomerania stopped here to issue official documents. It was part of Poland until 1309, when it was annexed by theState of the Teutonic Order. Poland tried to regain the region through diplomacy as it did not recognize its annexation by the Teutonic Knights, and from 1325 the local Cistercians secretly resumed collections of thePeter's Pence tax on behalf of Poland for theCatholic Church.[3] From 1320 to 1342 a Cistercian–Teutonic conflict took place, which ended with aprivilege in which the Teutonic Knights confirmed the Cisterian possessions in the region, including Rumia.[4]
In 1454 KingCasimir IV Jagiellon re-incorporated the region to theKingdom of Poland, and after the subsequentThirteen Years' War the Teutonic Knights renounced their claims to the region in 1466.[5] Afterwards Rumia was administratively located in the Puck County in thePomeranian Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland until thePartitions of Poland.[6] It remained a church village of the Cistercians from Oliwa, while the present-day district of Zagórze was a royal village of the Polish Crown,[6] and also new craft settlements (also present-day districts) Szmelta and Stara Piła emerged.[7]
In 1772 it was annexed by theKingdom of Prussia in theFirst Partition of Poland, and from 1773 it belonged to the newly established province ofWest Prussia until 1871 when it also became part of the unifiedGerman Empire. In 1905 Rumia (then officiallyRahmel) had 760 inhabitants. 579 of them were Germans and 180 were Kashubian or Polish,[8] while the present-day districts of Zagórze and Janowo had 754 and 161 inhabitants respectively, and remained predominantly Polish-Kashubian.[9] Rumia was a German language island in a predominantly Slavic speaking region.
Germany's defeat inWorld War I gave Poles hope for the restoration of independent Poland. The Poles established a local Polish library, and on December 29, 1918 the first Polish pro-independence rally took place in Rumia.[10] Germany responded with repressions and discrimination of Poles, and carried out arrests of Polish activists and searches of Polish homes, etc., however in 1920 Rumia was successfully restored to the newly re-establishedPolish state.[11] Administratively it was part of thenew Pomeranian Voivodeship.
In the late 1920s, the nearby village ofGdynia was developed into a city and one of the biggest seaports in the region – especially due to its strategic location on the Polish coastal region, to which Rumia also belonged. The rapid growth of the city of Gdynia prompted the price of land to increase. Labour migrants from other parts of Poland began to settle in the region including the village of Rumia and its vicinity. Zagórze, Kazimierz and Łężyce, which are today parts of Rumia, were originally separate villages, and were joined with Rumia in 1934 to form the Rumia Rural Commune. By 1934, Rumia had become asuburb ofGdynia (population of 12,000 in 1939), located approximately 10 km (6 mi) from the city centre and well-connected with it through a railway link. A small military airfield, home of two squadrons of the Coast Defence Escadrille (based inPuck) was opened to civilian planes on 1 May 1936. The airport serviced international routeGdynia-Copenhagen and domestic routeGdynia-Warsaw and by 1 January 1939, the number of passengers using it rose to over 3000 a year. The airfield was also the main base of theGdynia-basedglider club.
During the Germaninvasion of Poland in 1939, which startedWorld War II, Rumia was a site of heavy fighting. It was a flanking position of the main Polish defence line atKępa Oksywska. Two military cemeteries are located in the area. Soldiers of the207th Infantry Division (Wehrmacht) andSS members murdered 18 people in Rumia 11–12 September 1939.[12] Afterwards the town wasoccupied byNazi Germany, whichannexed it to the newly formed province ofReichsgau Danzig-West Prussia and renamed it to Rahmel. In September and October 1939,SS andSD terrorized ethnic Polish and Jewish population. Most of the victims were either executed at a nearby mass execution site inPiaśnica or sent to theStutthof concentration camp. Pre-warwójt of Rumia (head of the local administration) Hipolit Roszczynialski was among the victims of the massacres in Piaśnica. Approximately half of the pre-war inhabitants of the town wereexpelled from 1939 to 1941, mostly to theGeneral Government in the more eastern part of German-occupied Poland. Many were also deported toforced labour nearSzczecin.[13] The town was also a place of internment for several thousandPOWs, mostly from theUnited Kingdom,France andItaly. A forced labour camp and an aircraft assembly plant were located in the town's vicinity. In 1945, shortly before the town's liberation by theRed Army, the local airfield was destroyed by anRAF bombing raid.
In 1945, the town was transferred back to the once again reestablishedPomeranian Voivodeship. Rumia became a city in 1954 when a few other villages (Zagórze, Biała Rzeka, Szmelta and Janowo) were joined in. The town was administratively part of theGdańsk Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998. In 2001, the nearby village of Kazimierz was also included into city of Rumia.
Rumia is well connected through a 2-lane highway that leads fromWejherowo toGdynia and from there by Circular Highway toGdańsk. There is a plan to extend the Circular from Gdynia to beyond Wejherowo.
TheSzybka Kolej Miejska (Urban Fast Train) makes two stops in the city, connecting it to Wejherowo, Gdynia, and beyond. The stops areRumia andRumia Janowo. There is also network of city buses that also offers connections toWejherowo andGdynia.
Football team Orkan Rumia andrugby team Arka Rumia are based in the city.[14][15]
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 | 15,100 | — |
| 1970 | 23,300 | +54.3% |
| 1975 | 26,000 | +11.6% |
| 1980 | 26,700 | +2.7% |
| 1990 | 37,500 | +40.4% |
| 1995 | 40,000 | +6.7% |
| 1998 | 40,200 | +0.5% |
| 2005 | 44,900 | +11.7% |
| 2012 | 47,148 | +5.0% |
| 2019 | 49,160 | +4.3% |
| Note: 2010[16] 2014[17] 2017 | ||
Rumia istwinned with:
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