Koźmin Wielkopolski (, german: Koschmin) is a town in

Krotoszyn County __NOTOC__ Krotoszyn County ( pl, powiat krotoszyński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local ...

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo wielkopolskie; ), also known as Wielkopolska Voivodeship, Wielkopolska Province, or Greater Poland Province, is a voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

, with 6,678 inhabitants according to the 2010 census. It is the seat of the Koźmin Wielkopolski urban-rural gmina, which has a population of 13,739 people . Until January 1, 1997, the town's official name was "Koźmin"; "Wielkopolski" was then added to the name.

History

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

Polish settlement existed at the site as early as the 12th century. The oldest known mention of Koźmin comes from 1232, it was a village owned by the Knights Templar. It was granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

between 1251 and 1283. In 1338, King

Casimir III the Great Casimir III the Great ( pl, Kazimierz III Wielki; 30 April 1310 – 5 November 1370) reigned as the King of Poland from 1333 to 1370. He also later became King of Ruthenia in 1340, and fought to retain the title in the Galicia-Volhynia Wars. He ...

gave the town to Maćko Borowiec, who built a castle there. The castle, located along present-day Zamkowa Street, is still in use today; it houses a school and the Muzeum Ziemi Koźminskiej (Museum of the Koźmin Land). Koźmin was a

private town A private town is a town owned by a private person or a family. History of Private Towns in Poland In the history of Poland, private towns (''miasta prywatne'') were towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights, princes, etc. ...

located in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the

Polish Crown The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, incl ...

. The town changed owners several times; it was the property of the Górkas, a prominent Greater Poland family, in the 16th century, and later belonged to the

Sapieha The House of Sapieha (; be, Сапега, ''Sapieha''; lt, Sapiega) is a Polish-Lithuanian noble and magnate family of Lithuanian and Ruthenian origin,Энцыклапедыя ВКЛ. Т.2, арт. "Сапегі" descending from the med ...

family. It was considered one of the most powerful towns in Greater Poland in the 15th and 16th century. Koźmin prospered through trade and crafts. In the 17th century it was a local

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

center. After the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian W ...

, in 1793, it was annexed by

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

. Regained by Poles in 1807, it was included in the short-lived Polish

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...

, in 1815 it was re-annexed by Prussia. The Poles took part both in the unsuccessful Greater Poland uprising of 1848 and the victorious Greater Poland uprising of 1918–1919, after which Kobylin was integrated with Poland, shortly after it regained independence. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Koźmin Wielkopolski was under

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

from 6 September 1939 to 23 January 1945. One of the best-preserved Jewish cemeteries in Greater Poland is located in Koźmin Wielkopolski, along Wierzbowa Street. It includes more than 250 graves, dating back as far as 1806. The cemetery is maintained by a local teacher, Jerzy Fornalik, who is also the author of a multicultural education program, "Anty-Schematy," for students from Poland, Israel, Germany, and other countries. A former women's prison from

, which housed female political prisoners under the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

occupation, is located along present-day Klasztorna Street. Currently a youth education center is located in the building. Some of the prisoners are buried in a mass grave, commemorated by a monument, in the cemetery along Poznańska Street.

Gallery

Koźmin Wielkopolski. Greater Poland. the Holy Cross church.jpg, Holy Cross church Kościół par. p.w. NMP i św. Wawrzyńca.jpg, Saint Lawrence church Widok od strony wejścia na strzelnicę..JPG, Palace Koźmin Wielkopolski park im. Wojska Polskiego fragment 25. 08. 2013 p.jpg, Municipal Park Koźmin Wielkopolski ul. Borecka 22 25. 08. 2013 p2.jpg, Historic bank building

People

* Stanislaus von Kalckreuth (1820-1894), German painter

References

Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Krotoszyn County {{Krotoszyn-geo-stub