Piła (Polish:[ˈpiwa]^ⓘ;German:Schneidemühl) is a city in northwesternPoland and the capital ofPiła County, situated in theGreater Poland Voivodeship. Its population as of 2021^[update] was 71,846,^[1] making it thethird-largest city in the voivodeship afterPoznań andKalisz and the largest city in the northern part ofGreater Poland.

Piła
From top, left to right: Former officers' mess Birthplace and Museum ofStanisław Staszic Holy Family church Park Pension Piła Główna
Flag Coat of arms
Piła Show map of Greater Poland Voivodeship Piła Show map of Poland
Coordinates:53°9′N16°44′E / 53.150°N 16.733°E /53.150; 16.733
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Greater Poland
County	Piła County
Gmina	Piła(urban gmina)
Established	14th century
Town rights	before 1449
Government
• Mayor	Beata Dudzińska (nonpartisan/KO)
Area
• Total	103 km2 (40 sq mi)
Highest elevation	134 m (440 ft)
Lowest elevation	50 m (160 ft)
Population  (31 December 2021)
• Total	71,846[1]
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	64-900, 64-920, 64-931, 64-933 to 64-935, 64-970
Area code	+48 067
Car plates	PP
Climate	Dfb
Website	http://www.pila.pl

Founded in the 14th century, Piła was aroyal city of Poland, whose prosperity came from crafts and trade. The city is located on theGwda river and is famous for its green areas, parks and dense forests nearby. It is an important road and railway hub, located at the intersection of two main lines:Poznań–Szczecin andBydgoszcz–Krzyż Wielkopolski. Piła is the center of light industry, culture and education in northern Greater Poland, and is particularly known formotorcycle speedway racing.

Piła is aPolish word meaning "saw". This was a typical name denoting a village ofwoodcutters belonging to a local noble. The German nameSchneidemühl means "sawmill".

Piła traces its origins to an old fishing village.^[2] Following theGermancolonist movement of the 13th century, and particularly after the end of thefirst Mongol invasion of Poland of 1241, many German colonizers came to this densely wooded area of Poland. General immigration of German settlers diminished, however, when Poland, under KingCasimir IV Jagiellon (1447–1492), finally defeated theTeutonic Order in 1466.

ASlavic settlement ofwoodcutters in thefishing village Piła may have existed before any of the later villages and surrounding towns of the area were established. Thus, in the 14th century Piła grew to some extent because of its position on the Gwda a mere 11 kilometres (7 miles) from where it joins the river Notec. Yet, the settlement developed less than others that were on such major water routes as the riversWarta or Vistula. Piła's simple layout of unpaved streets and primitive clay and timber houses gave little protection to its inhabitants and was still far from becoming a commercially interesting locale. If one were to credit a Privilegium (charter) of the early 1380s as evidence, a document associated with the building of a church in Piła and ascribed to the very young Polish QueenJadwiga of Poland—a copied document that still existed in the archives of the town before 1834—then that period could well be regarded as the time when the village of Piła/Snydemole was elevated to the status of town. The recurring double naming Piła-Snydemole may be because two originally separate localities took their name from the water-powered sawmill that had been part of the town's raison d'être from the beginning.

Documented references to Snydemole and Piła are reportedly found in parish church sources of 1449, where there is mention of a sawmill and of the name of the currentwojewoda (governor) Paul. Evidence also exists of a letter from 1456 by theBrandenburgFriedrich II Hohenzollern who had bought the Neumark region from theTeutonic Order in 1455. The letter is addressed to bishop Andrzej of Poznań and to Łukasz Górka, the localStarosta, the royal constable ofWielkopolska. The elector complained that in prevailing peace times some burghers of Snydemole and Piła were making raids on his lands. This accusation may tend to give additional credence to the earlier claim that Queen Jadwiga in the 1380s was indeed the founder of the town of Piła.

Until 1480 Piła was a town owned by the nobility, belonging to Maciej Opaliński who later presented his holdings to KingCasimir IV Jagiellon, at which time Piła became aroyal town. Administratively it was located in the Poznań County in thePoznań Voivodeship in theGreater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland.^[3] It is known that ten years later the burghers of the town were accused and penalized for tax evasion that had been occurring over a period of five years. However, KingSigismund I the Old—during whose reign immigration of numerousJews from theIberian peninsula,Bohemia and German states was encouraged—bestowed municipal rights upon the town of Piła on 4 March 1513, a landmark decision. This was an important achievement for Piła since it gave the burghers not only status, but also the rights to self-administration and its own judiciary. The administration of the town's affairs was now in the hands of three legislative bodies, elected from among the burghers. They were the council with the mayor, jury court and the elders of the guilds. Only the position of theWójt remained in the hands of the crown or its deputy, the Starosta. The sovereign, however, remained the ultimate judge, warlord and owner of the land. Being free from the arbitrariness of aCastellan or ofWojewoda (governor of the province)—Piła's town folk took advantage of the town's privileges by owning property, carrying on any trade and enjoying the right to hold much neededmarket fairs.

Economic circumstances or personal feuds may have been responsible for the frequent changes of ownership of the town, as Piła was 'purchased' in 1518 by Hieronymus von Bnin; the document outlining the deed and ownership during his lifetime was given to him by King Sigismund I in 1525. Following the demise of Bnin, the town became the property of the dynasty of the mighty Gorka family. This family, secretly leaning towardProtestantism and in power until the 17th century, included some of the wealthiest landowners and most influentialnobles of Poland and was known to be benevolent to their town's folk.

In 1548 Piła obtained a privilege that banned any foreignpotter from the town's markets, and in 1561 a fishing privilege was obtained. Piła was part of thePoznań Voivodeship, the region divided into the fourstarostwa (land holdings) ofPoznań,Kościan,Wschowa andWałcz, the latter encompassing the Starosty Ujscie-Piła, the area between the rivers Gwda, Notec and Drage.Stara Piła, the old Piła, a town that never had walls, was slow to grow.

By the middle of the 16th century, many German Protestant craftsmen and traders, driven out ofBohemia by religious persecution during theReformation, settled in numerous towns in the region. Some may have settled in Piła too, yet in 1563 the small town had no more than 750 inhabitants. They are known to have lived in 153 houses, primitively built, primarily with timber and clay, covered with straw and grouped mainly around the Old Market. When KingStephen Báthory of Poland confirmed two of the town's privileges on 3 September 1576, the burghers were granted the right to hold their weekly market on a Monday (instead of Thursday),^[4] an important feat. Over the following 150 years, numerous privileges and charters were re-issued by the Polish crown, mainly as a result of loss by fire. By 1591 a statute allowing apprenticeships in various trades was obtained. In 1593 KingSigismund III Vasa confirmed old privileges of Piła.^[4]

When the widowedSigismund III Vasa married princessConstance, an Austrian archduchess from theHouse of Habsburg, in 1605, he presented the town of Piła, together with the lands of the domain of Ujście, as a wedding gift to his new bride. She became responsible for changing Piła in several ways over the next few decades. Acting in concert with the tenets of the prevailingCatholicCounter Reformation, the queen first attended to what seemed closest to her heart. She saw to it that numerous Protestant churches in the region ofWałcz, the most German of areas where seventeen Protestant villages existed, be handed over to the Roman Catholic clergy, hounding many a German Protestant burgher in the process.

After one of the town's frequent fires in 1619, the queen—in a benevolent gesture and as her 'present' to the burghers of Piła—appropriated funds from the large estate to have the old burnt-out wooden Catholic Church rebuilt. Alas, given the random, close proximity of houses to one another, town fires occurred with such regularity in numerous communities during that period that in 1626 another devastating fire broke out in Piła. This time the entire town was laid to ashes, including the newly built church. Constance subsequently charged her secretary Samuel Targowski on 15 July 1626 to survey what was left of the town. His proposal for a new layout was to be drastic forChristian burghers; to the developing Jewish community it was most consequential and of particular detriment. Constance also decided on a distinct segregation of Jews and Christians. The Jewish community was to resettle in aghetto, what was to become a virtual town within a town. The new site, from thereon often referred to asJudenstadt, the Jews' town. To demarcate the newly created ghetto, the decree called for a sizable trench to be dug to surround the Jewish quarters where feasible; otherwise a tall wooden fence had to serve to close in the area completely.

A new church arose in 1628. Unlike most other buildings in town, the choir room section of this edifice was to remain intact in its original form until 1945. New houses were constructed of brick and stone and the town was reconstructed in plainRenaissance style. Polish Kings confirmed old privileges of Piła again in 1633 and 1650, and granted new privileges in 1660, 1670 and 1688, which were then confirmed in 1716.^[5] On 24 July 1655, duringthe Deluge,Swedish troops captured the predominantlyLutheran town and destroyed most of its buildings and infrastructure. During October 1656, a Polish troupe ofStefan Czarniecki's army sought retribution upon the largely German and Protestant burghers of Piła, accusing them of collusion with the Swedes. During the consecutiveGreat Northern andSeven Years' Wars similar havoc was visited upon the remaining inhabitants. To add to the plight, it was discovered that theplague had been carried in.

With the signing of the definitive treaty to divide Poland betweenPrussia,Austria andRussia in 1772, theFirst Partition of Poland was accomplished. Piła became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and was officially renamedSchneidemühl. AfterFrederick II of Prussia signed the Ownership Protocol of his Polish lands on 13 September 1772, he created out of the northern parts of Greater Poland andKuyavia theDépartement Westpreussen. Part of that area was later also known as theNetzedistrikt, a governmental administrative district consisting of a wide strip of land both sides of the river Noteć (Netze), stretching from it source north ofWrześnia (Wreschen) to the border of the Neumark. Frederick II initiated new German Protestant colonization in opposition to Polish Catholics.^[6]

In the year 1781, another huge fire occurred, which devastated half the town. Although Prussian authorities had brought inchimney sweeps and regulations that spelled out fire emergency tasks, hardly anyone in the town was prepared for a major conflagration. 44 houses, 37 stables and 17 barns burned down.

In 1793 Piła was recaptured for a short period by a Polish army led by Colonel Wyganowski. Following Prussia's defeat in thebattle of Jena andGreater Poland uprising (1806), and after signing thePeace of Tilsit of 7 July 1807, Piła became part of the semi-independent PolishDuchy of Warsaw.

After theCongress of Vienna of 1815, Prussia regained the town once again. Under the Prussian administrative reforms of 1816–18, the town became part of theKolmar District within theBromberg Region of theGrand Duchy of Posen. On 1 January 1818 Kreis Kolmar was established, with its seat in Piła / Schneidemühl, which in 1821 was moved toChodzież. One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful PolishNovember Uprising from partitioned Poland to theGreat Emigration led through the city.^[7]

The Polish language was restricted from offices and education and the city saw a significant influx of German settlers. By 1834 Schneidemühl had barely recovered from the worst outbreak ofcholera of 1831, an epidemic that affected the town's burghers to such an extent that a special Protestant cholera cemetery had to be laid out in the town's suburb Berliner Vorstadt. In the summer of 1834 the city was again struck by a fire that destroyed a large part of the city centre and the city archives. The city was rebuilt shortly afterwards.

In 1851 the city was connected toBerlin andBydgoszcz (Bromberg) by thePrussian Eastern Railway. An architectural artifact which remains from the railway development period is ahistorical roundhouse.

TheGermanisation policy of the Prussian and Imperial German government replaced its Polish identity with a German one. By the end of the 19th century the city had become one of the most important railway centers of the region and one of the biggest towns in theProvince of Posen. It was turned into a Prussian militarygarrison town. Schneidemühl was revisited by a catastrophe, known as theBrunnenunglück, or the 'calamity of the well' that made national headlines. The drilling of an artesian well in August 1892 went horribly wrong and led to unexpected widespread flooding of many of the streets laid out in 1834, causing numerous houses to simply collapse and leaving more than eighty families without shelter. The worst was that this disaster came only a few years on the heels of unexpected flooding caused by the spring thaw of March 1888 that had turned the Küddow into a raging river, when many people were forced to use rowboats to navigate the streets.

On 1 April 1914 Schneidemühl was disentangled from theKolmar District and became anindependent city (or urban district; Stadtkreis) within the Bromberg Region. In the months before the outbreak ofWorld War I, in April 1914 theAlbatros Flugzeugwerke established the so-calledOstdeutsche Albatros-Werke (East German Albatros Works, abbreviated "O.A.W.") in Schneidemühl for construction of military aircraft for theFliegertruppe air service of theGerman Army throughout the war — it later undertook license production of Fokker's famousFokker D.VII fighter during the last year of World War I.

During the First World War, the Germans operated aprisoner-of-war camp in the city, initially taking mainly Russian POWs (including Poles and Latvians conscripted into the Russian Army) but later including prisoners from mostAllied nations including Britain and Australia. A telling account of life in the town during that period survives in the form of the diary ofPiete Kuhr, then a young girl whose grandmother worked at the Red Cross canteen at the railway station.

After World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and theGreater Poland Uprising broke out, which aim was to reintegrate the region with Poland. Local Poles were persecuted for their pro-Polish stance by the Germans, who also held Polish insurgents in the local prison.^[8] After the signing of theTreaty of Versailles, and after much protest by the German majority of its population, Schneidemühl was not included in thePolish Second Republic. After the Greater Poland Uprising, the new Polish-German border ran five kilometres (3.1 miles) south of the city.

On 21 July 1922 Schneidemühl became the administrative centre of the newFrontier March of Posen-West Prussia Province, a body of self-rule encompassing those three disconnected parts of the former Province of Posen and the westernmost parts of theProvince of West Prussia, which were not ceded to Poland and of the Posen-West PrussianSchneidemühl Region, a body of central government supervision comprising the same provincial area. In 1925, with the sudden influx of theOptanten, inhabitants of areas annexed by Poland who opted not to become Polish citizens and left for the reduced German Reich. Schneidemühl's population swelled by about 10,000 to 37,518, creating considerable publicity in Germany.

In 1930 Schneidemühl replaced Tütz (Tuczno) as seat of the Catholic jurisdiction, which was promoted fromApostolic administration toTerritorial Prelature of Schneidemühl within theEastern German Ecclesiastical Province. The city experienced a short period of growth followed by a period of decline in the early 1930s. High unemployment and the ineffectiveness of local administration led to rising support for theNSDAP.

With the onset of the Nazi period and the beginning of theGestapo's harassment of political and racial undesirables, the climate for Schneidemühl's shrinking Jewish community (which had reached over 1,000 members during the mid-19th century) changed irreversibly — institutionalizedantisemitism had arrived in Schneidemühl.^{[citation needed]}

In March and September 1938, aVerwaltungsgliederung, or administrative reform, merged the three territorially unconnected parts of the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia province into the respective neighbouring Prussian provinces ofBrandenburg,Silesia andPomerania — placing the bulk of former Posen-West Prussia with thedistricts of Deutsch Krone,Flatow,Netzekreis,Schlochau and Schneidemühl into Pomerania. Schneidemühl remained the headquarters of thegovernment region, reduced by the districts ceded to Brandenburg and Silesia, but enlarged by four previously Brandenburgian and Pomeranian districts and renamed asFrontier March of Posen-West Prussia Region [de] (Regierungsbezirk Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen) for reasons of tradition, as of 1 October 1938.

During thepogrom of 9/10 November 1938 the freestanding structure of Schneidemühl's 100-year-oldsynagogue became a prime target for the Nazis who set fire to it. In 1939, in the city and the region, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Polish activists,^[9] who then were imprisoned in a temporary camp in the city before deportation toNazi concentration camps, some were even tortured.^[10] In October 1939, a German camp forSinti andRomani people was established.^[11] The city's 300-year-old Jewish community was destroyed when on 21 March 1940, on the order of Gauleiter Schwede-Coburg, the last remaining Jews, together with more than 500 Jews of the surrounding area within an 80 km (50 mi) radius, were arrested and held prisoner in various locations in the city. A large number of them were subsequently taken to theforced labour campRadinkendorf and theGlowno prisoner camp outside of Poznań and held there in detention under inhuman conditions. Over the following two years they were taken to various labour camps, hospices, hospitals in Pomerania,Bielefeld and Berlin. Those who had not committed suicide or had perished during that period were deported to concentration camps, the last in 1943.^[12] During World War II a camp for civil prisoners-of-war named "Albatros" was established. Polesexpelled fromGmina Dziemiany inGdańsk Pomerania were used as forced labour in the local aviation industry.^[13] Also seven forced labour subcamps of theStalag II-Bprisoner-of-war camp^[14] and a forced labour camp, which was subordinate to the local prison, were operated in the city.^[15] Several British POWs escaped, and then thePolish resistance facilitated their further escape through the port ofGdynia by sea toSweden.^[16] The localHome Army also maintained contact with Polish POWs held in theOflag II-C camp.^[17]

The city became part of thePomeranian Wall line of fortifications. In 1945 the town was declared afortress byAdolf Hitler. During theEast Pomeranian offensive it was captured by the jointPolish andRed Army forces after two weeks of heavy fighting on 14 February 1945.^[18] 75% of the city was destroyed and almost 90% of the historic city centre was in ruins.

As a result of the border changes agreed at thePotsdam Conference in 1945, the city became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until theFall of Communism in the 1980s. The city's historic Polish namePiła was restored. The remaining local German population wasexpelled by Polish and Soviet troops from 1945 to 1948 in accordance with thePotsdam Agreement,^{[citation needed]} whilePolish expelees fromformer eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union and settlers from areas of central Poland, which were destroyed during the war, were resettled in the city. The historical city centre was only partially restored.

In 1972 theTerritorial Prelature of Piła was suppressed, its territory being reassigned to establish theDiocese of Koszalin–Kołobrzeg andDiocese of Gorzów.

In August 1980, employees of local factories joined the nationwide anti-communist strikes,^[19] which led to the foundation of theSolidarity organization, which played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland.

In 1975 Piła became the capital of the newly establishedPiła Voivodeship (province), which started a period of fast development of industry in the area as one of the most important cities of the region. It remained a voivodeship capital until the administrative reform of 1999. It is known for its green areas and parks, as well as for itsspeedway clubPolonia Piła who race at theStadion Polonii Piła.

Climate in this area has mild differences between highs and lows, and there is adequate rainfall year-round. TheKöppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "Cfb". (Marine West Coast Climate).

• Signify formerly known as 'Philips Lighting Poland", Piła
• Quad/Graphics Europe, Piła (in the past known asWinkowski sp. z o.o.)

• Museum ofStanisław Staszic in his former house
• 19th-century building of the formerarsenal
• St. Stanislaus Kostka's church, built inNeo-Gothic style
• Holy Family's church, built inNeo-baroque style, formerlyconcathedral of thePrałatura Pilska
• St. Anthony's Church with the biggest wooden figure ofJesus in Europe, seven metres (23feet) tall (church built in 1930)
• Two war cemeteries (Allied POWs from World War I and Polish and Soviet soldiers killed during the battle of the Pomeranian Wall during World War II); cemeteries are in uptown Piła, in Leszków.
• Modern two-levelshopping center "Atrium Kasztanowa"
• Modern shopping center "Vivo!" (Piła), located next torailway station "DworzecPKP - Piła Główna (en. StationPKP - Piła Main)
• "Aqua Park" -water park
• "Park na Wyspie" - big park located on island (wyspa) with open-air gym, playground, square and fountains

Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Piła constituency:

• Adam Szejnfeld –Civic Platform
• Jakub Rutnicki –Civic Platform
• Stanisław Chmielewski –Civic Platform
• Piotr Waśko –Civic Platform
• Maks Kraczkowski –Law and Justice
• Tomasz Górski –Law and Justice
• Romuald Ajchler –Left and Democrats
• Stanisław Stec –Left and Democrats
• Stanisław Kalemba –Polish People's Party

Members ofPolish Senate elected from Piła constituency:

• Mieczysław Augustyn –Civic Platform
• Piotr Głowski –Civic Platform

• The president of the Town of Piła:Piotr Głowski
• Vicepresidents:Krzysztof Szewc,Beata Dudzińska
• Town council chairman:Rafał Zdzierela
• Town council vicechairmans:Paweł Jarczak,Janusz Kubiak

• Polonia Piła –speedway team, 1999 Polish Champions
• PTPS Piła – women'svolleyball team playing in theTAURON Liga (Polish top division): Polish champions in 1998–1999, 1999–2000, 2000–2001, 2001–2002 seasons, 2nd place in 2005–2006, 2006–2007 and 2007–2008 seasons and 3rd place in 2004–2005 and 2008–2009 seasons.
• Joker Piła – men's volleyball team playing in the lower leagues, which also played in thetop division in the past (most recently inseason 2005–06)
• Basket Piła – men's basketball team playing in the lower leagues
• Gwda Piła –athletics club^[31]
• Gwardia Piła – athletics club

Piła istwinned with:

•  Châtellerault,France
•  Schwerin,Germany
•  Imola,Italy^[32]

•  Kronstadt,Russia

On 1 March 2022, Piła suspended its partnership with the Russian city of Kronsdadt as a reaction to theRussian invasion of Ukraine.^[33]

• Internet portal of Piła
• Our city - Piła(in Polish)
• Forum Dyskusyjne Pilskiej Społeczności Internetowej(in Polish)
• Historical information about Piła(in Polish)
• Życie Piły - daily news from Piła(in Polish)
• History of the former Jewish community of Schneidemühl / Pila