Bydgoszcz–Toruń metropolitan area (Polish: ''bydgosko-toruński obszar metropolitalny'') is the name of the bi-polar

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

in the middle of the

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

river centered on the cities of

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

and

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

in north-central

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. The distance between the built-up areas of the cities is about 30 km. They are the administrative capitals and economic centers of

Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship * Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) in Poland. * Kuyavian-Pomeranian is one of 13 Polish constituency of the European Parliament. * Kuyavian-Pomeranian Regional Assembly is the regional legislature of t ...

. Despite the fact that these two cities are integrating gradually, they have been in a great competition through the centuries. In September 2004 the Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz joined Toruń University as Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz. Although not without some controversy, this is usually considered as an important step in the integration process. Depending on the calculation method and on what is the exact area taken into consideration, the total population varies from between about 600,000 and 800,000 inhabitants.

Population

The total population of the two biggest cities combined (Bydgoszcz + Toruń), excluding adjacent communities: * 1900: 81,839 inhabitants (52,204 + 29,635) * 1910: 103,923 inhabitants (57,696 + 46,227) * 1920: 121,354 inhabitants (84,054 + 37,300) * 1931: 171,808 inhabitants (117,528 + 54,280) * 1939: 224,275 inhabitants (143,075 + 81,200) * 1946: 202,699 inhabitants (134,614 + 68,085) * 1950: 243,161 inhabitants (162,524 + 80,637) * 1955: 294,594 inhabitants (202,044 + 92,550) * 1960: 336,913 inhabitants (232,007 + 104,906) * 1995: 590,716 inhabitants (386,056 + 204,660) * 2020: 545,197 inhabitants (344,091 + 201,106)

History

Historically, Bydgoszcz and Toruń were the most important

royal cities The term royal city denotes a privilege that some cities in the Lands of the Bohemian Crown enjoyed during the Middle Ages. It meant the city was an inalienable part of the royal estate; the king could not sell or pledge the city. At the beginnin ...

in the area. Both cities hosted sessions of the Polish Parliament, i.e. Bydgoszcz in 1520, and Toruń in 1576 and 1626. It is also where Peaces of Thorn and

Treaty of Bromberg The Treaty of Bromberg (, Latin: Pacta Bydgostensia) or Treaty of Bydgoszcz was a treaty between John II Casimir of Poland and Elector Frederick William of Brandenburg-Prussia that was ratified at Bromberg (Bydgoszcz) on 6 November 1657. The t ...

were signed. The two were parts of different administrative units for centuries, with Bydgoszcz starting as Polish and Toruń as Teutonic settlements, then becoming the biggest cities of

Inowrocław Voivodeship Inowrocław Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Together with the neighbouring Brześć Kujawski Voivodeship it was part of the Kuyavia ...

and

Chełmno Voivodeship The Chełmno Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland since 1454/1466 until the Partitions of Poland in 1772/1793. Its capital was at Chełmno. Together wi ...

in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, later in Germany of Bromberg district (

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (; ) was a Provinces of Prussia, province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920, occupying most of the historical Greater Poland. The province was established following the Greater Poland Uprising (1848), Poznań Uprisi ...

) and Marienwerder district (

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (; ; ) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and from 1878 to 1919. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1773, formed from Royal Prussia of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonweal ...

). This would change only in the year of 1938, when Bydgoszcz was moved from the Poznań to the Pomeranian Voivodeship with Toruń, soon to take the role of the capital of the whole region. The postwar growth of the cities and the new political administrative landscape led to application of the term "Bydgoszcz-Toruń metropolitan area" which first appeared in the 1960s.

Education

Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń or NCU (, UMK) is located in Toruń, Poland. It is named after Nicolaus Copernicus, who was born in Toruń in 1473. History The beginnings of higher education in Toruń The first institution of higher ...

Casimir the Great University in Bydgoszcz Casimir is a Latin version of the Polish male name Kazimierz (). The original Polish feminine form is Kazimiera, in Latin and other languages rendered as Casimira. It has two possible meanings: "preacher of peace" or alternatively "destroyer of p ...

* Bydgoszcz University of Science and Technology * Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz of the Nicolaus Copernicus University * Feliks Nowowiejski Music Academy, Bydgoszcz * Jagiellonian College, Toruń

Sights

The main sights of the agglomeration are the old towns of Bydgoszcz and Toruń, with the latter listed as a

World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

. The local

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath, Somerset, Ba ...

Ciechocinek Ciechocinek (Polish pronunciation: ; German (1941–1945): ''Hermannsbad'') is a spa town in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland, located on the Vistula River about east of Aleksandrów Kujawski and south-east of the city of Tor ...

, and its graduation towers, saline and spa parks are declared a Historic Monument of Poland. The metropolitan area is rich in historic architecture ranging from Romanesque and

Gothic architecture Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High Middle Ages, High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. It evolved f ...

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

and

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

. There are also several castles and palaces, including Dybów, Zamek Bierzgłowski, Ostromecko, Żołędowo. The Dybów Castle was the place where in 1454 King

Casimir IV Jagiellon Casimir IV (Casimir Andrew Jagiellon; ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 until his death in 1492. He was one of the most active Polish-Lithuanian rulers; under ...

issued the famous

Statutes of Nieszawa The Nieszawa Statutes () were a set of laws enacted in the Kingdom of Poland of the Jagiellons, Kingdom of Poland in 1454, in the town of Nieszawa located in north-central Poland. The King Casimir IV Jagiellon made a number of concessions to the Pol ...

, covering a set of privileges for the

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

; an event that is regarded as the birth of the noble democracy in Poland, which lasted until the late-18th-century

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

. Bydgoszcz and Toruń host major museums and art galleries, including the Leon Wyczółkowski Regional Museum in Bydgoszcz and

District Museum in Toruń Toruń Regional Museum (), located in the '' Ratusz'' hall of Toruń, is one of the oldest and largest museums in Poland. It started in 1594 as the mere Cabinet of Curiosities at the library of the academic Gimnazjum, called ''Musaeum'' in Latin. ...

. The more unique museums include: * Copernicus House in Toruń, museum dedicated to

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath who formulated a mathematical model, model of Celestial spheres#Renaissance, the universe that placed heliocentrism, the Sun rather than Earth at its cen ...

*European Museum of Money at the former Polish Royal Mint in Bydgoszcz *Museum of

Toruń Gingerbread Toruń gingerbread (, ) is a traditional Polish gingerbread that has been produced since the Middle Ages in the city of Toruń. History Old Polish sayings connect Toruń with making of some form of gingerbread, and the expansion of the craft ...

in Toruń *Museum of Far Eastern Art in the Under the Star Tenement House in Toruń *Andrzej Szwalbe Collection of Historical Pianos at the palace in Ostromecko, one of two largest such collections in Poland *

Exploseum The Exploseum ("explosines + museum"; ) is an open-air museum of industrial architecture combined with a museum of 20th century technology in Bydgoszcz, Poland. It is built around the World War II Nazi Germany munitions factory Bromberg Dynamit N ...

in Bydgoszcz, operated at the site of a former Nazi German arms factory.

Sports

Motorcycle speedway Motorcycle speedway, usually referred to simply as speedway, is a motorcycle sport involving four and sometimes up to six riders competing over four clockwise, anti-clockwise laps of an oval circuit. The motorcycles are specialist machines that ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

enjoy the largest following in the metropolitan area. The

KS Toruń KS Toruń, currently competing as PRES Grupa Deweloperska Toruń, is a Polish motorcycle speedway team from Toruń. The team currently competes in the Ekstraliga (the highest division) and have won the Team Speedway Polish Championship four tim ...

and

Polonia Bydgoszcz Polonia Bydgoszcz is a Polish sports club based in Bydgoszcz most known for its Motorcycle speedway, speedway team ŻKS Polonia Bydgoszcz which currently races in the Polish Speedway First League, 1. Liga. The club has won the Team Speedway Pol ...

clubs are among the most accomplished speedway clubs in the country and contest the

Pomeranian-Kuyavian Derby The Pomeranian-Kuyavian Derby (), also known as the Pomeranian Derby (''Derby Pomorza'') is a motorcycle speedway match between rivals Polonia Bydgoszcz and KS Toruń. The rivalry comes about as Bydgoszcz and Toruń are the two largest cities in f ...

, one of the fiercest speedway rivalries. Bdg halaLuczniczka 17 07-2013

References