Lidzbark Warmiński (; german: Heilsberg, ), often shortened to Lidzbark, is a historical town located within the

Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship or Warmia-Masuria Province or Warmia-Mazury Province (in pl, Województwo warmińsko-mazurskie, is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Olsztyn. The voivodeship has an are ...

, in northern

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 populous ...

. It is the capital of

Lidzbark County __NOTOC__ Lidzbark County ( pl, powiat lidzbarski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland. Its administrative seat and largest town is Lidzbark Warmiński, which lies ...

. Lidzbark Warmiński was once the capital of

Warmia Warmia ( pl, Warmia; Latin: ''Varmia'', ''Warmia''; ; Warmian: ''Warńija''; lt, Varmė; Old Prussian: ''Wārmi'') is both a historical and an ethnographic region in northern Poland, forming part of historical Prussia. Its historic capitals ...

and formerly its largest town. Lidzbark itself was a religious and cultural center, for which it was known as the ''Pearl of Warmia''. For a long period of time it was under the control of the Warmian Bishops and it was also a major economic center, only resigning its importance to the nearby city of

Braniewo Braniewo () (german: Braunsberg in Ostpreußen, la, Brunsberga, Old Prussian: ''Brus'', lt, Prūsa), is a town in northern Poland, in Warmia, in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, with a population of 16,907 as of June 2021. It is the capital ...

. The Warmian Bishop's Castle is considered to be a great artistic and historical value in the world and has been recognised as a

Historic Monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

by the Polish government.

History

The town was originally a settlement of

Old Prussians Old Prussians, Baltic Prussians or simply Prussians (Old Prussian: ''prūsai''; german: Pruzzen or ''Prußen''; la, Pruteni; lv, prūši; lt, prūsai; pl, Prusowie; csb, Prësowié) were an indigenous tribe among the Baltic peoples that in ...

known as ''Lecbarg'' until being conquered in 1240 by the

Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

, who named it Heilsberg. In 1306 it became the seat for the

Bishopric of Warmia The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia ( pl, Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie; german: Fürstbistum Ermland) was a semi-independent ecclesiastical state, ruled by the incumbent ordinary of the Warmia see and comprising one third of the then diocesan ar ...

, and remained the Prince-Bishop's seat for 500 years. In 1309 the settlement received

town privileges 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 ...

. In the 1350s the Castle of Warmian Bishops was built, and it was expanded in the following centuries, becoming one of the most significant and remarkable historic monuments of Warmia, which nowadays houses a museum and is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland. In 1440 the town joined the anti-Teutonic

Prussian Confederation The Prussian Confederation (german: Preußischer Bund, pl, Związek Pruski) was an organization formed on 21 February 1440 at Kwidzyn (then officially ''Marienwerder'') by a group of 53 nobles and clergy and 19 cities in Prussia (region), Prussi ...

, upon the request of which in 1454 Polish King

Casimir IV Jagiellon Casimir IV (in full Casimir IV Andrew Jagiellon; pl, Kazimierz IV Andrzej Jagiellończyk ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447, until his death. He was one of the ...

incorporated the region and town to the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to: Historical political entities *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031 *Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exist ...

. This caused the Polish–Teutonic Thirteen Years' War, as a result of which in the

Second Peace of Thorn (1466) The Peace of Thorn or Toruń of 1466, also known as the Second Peace of Thorn or Toruń ( pl, drugi pokój toruński; german: Zweiter Friede von Thorn), was a peace treaty signed in the Hanseatic city of Thorn (Toruń) on 19 October 1466 betwe ...

the

Teutonic Order The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

ended its claim to the area and recognized it as part of Poland.Górski, p. 99 It was the capital of the

Prince-Bishopric of Warmia The Prince-Bishopric of Warmia ( pl, Biskupie Księstwo Warmińskie; german: Fürstbistum Ermland) was a semi-independent ecclesiastical state, ruled by the incumbent ordinary of the Warmia see and comprising one third of the then diocesan area ...

in the Polish province of

Royal Prussia Royal Prussia ( pl, Prusy Królewskie; german: Königlich-Preußen or , csb, Królewsczé Prësë) or Polish PrussiaAnton Friedrich Büsching, Patrick Murdoch. ''A New System of Geography'', London 1762p. 588/ref> (Polish: ; German: ) was a ...

in the larger

Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown , subdivision = Province , nation = Poland , year_start = , event_end = Third Partition of Poland , year_end = , image_map = Prowincje I RP.svg , image_map_capt ...

Nicolaus Copernicus Nicolaus Copernicus (; pl, Mikołaj Kopernik; gml, Niklas Koppernigk, german: Nikolaus Kopernikus; 19 February 1473 – 24 May 1543) was a Renaissance polymath, active as a mathematician, astronomer, and Catholic Church, Catholic cano ...

first visited the town at the turn of 1495 and 1496, and then lived at the castle from 1503. It is believed he wrote part of his ''

De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ''De revolutionibus orbium coelestium'' (English translation: ''On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres'') is the seminal work on the heliocentric theory of the astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) of the Polish Renaissance. The book, ...

'' there. In the winter of 1703–04 the town was the residence of King

Charles XII of Sweden Charles XII, sometimes Carl XII ( sv, Karl XII) or Carolus Rex (17 June 1682 – 30 November 1718 O.S.), was King of Sweden (including current Finland) from 1697 to 1718. He belonged to the House of Palatinate-Zweibrücken, a branch line of t ...

during the

Great Northern War The Great Northern War (1700–1721) was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedi ...

. In the mid-18th century a manuscript of the ''

Gesta principum Polonorum The ''Gesta principum Polonorum'' (; "''Deeds of the Princes of the Poles''") is the oldest known medieval chronicle documenting the history of Poland from the legendary times until 1113. Written in Latin by an anonymous author, it was most lik ...

'', the oldest

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, post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with t ...

Polish chronicle was discovered in the castle by Prince-Bishop Adam Stanisław Grabowski, by whose decision it was then published in print for the first time. The town was annexed with the rest of the region by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

in the First Partition of Poland in 1772. The town ceased to be the capital of the

, which was disestablished, however it remained the seat of the last Prince-Bishop

Ignacy Krasicki Ignacy Błażej Franciszek Krasicki (3 February 173514 March 1801), from 1766 Prince-Bishop of Warmia (in German, ''Ermland'') and from 1795 Archbishop of Gniezno (thus, Primate of Poland), was Poland's leading Enlightenment poet"Ignacy Krasic ...

until 1795, and afterwards the town lost its cultural significance, which it has not regained since. In 1807 a

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

took place near the town between the French under

Joachim Murat Joachim Murat ( , also , ; it, Gioacchino Murati; 25 March 1767 – 13 October 1815) was a French military commander and statesman who served during the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Under the French Empire he received the ...

and

Nicolas Jean de Dieu Soult Marshal General Jean-de-Dieu Soult, 1st Duke of Dalmatia, (; 29 March 1769 – 26 November 1851) was a French general and statesman, named Marshal of the Empire in 1804 and often called Marshal Soult. Soult was one of only six officers in Fren ...

and the

Russians , native_name_lang = ru , image = , caption = , population = , popplace = 118 million Russians in the Russian Federation (2002 ''Winkler Prins'' estimate) , region1 = , pop1 ...

and Prussians under

Levin August, count von Bennigsen , native_name_lang = , birth_name = , nickname = , birth_date = , birth_place = Braunschweig, Electorate of Hanover, Holy Roman Empire , death_date = , death_place = Banteln, Kingdom of Hanover, German Confederation , ...

. From 1933 to 1945 it was the site of the large German government radio station Transmitter Heilsberg. The town was heavily damaged after its conquest by the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

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 opposin ...

in 1945. As part of territorial changes demanded by the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

at the

Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Pe ...

, the town became once again part of Poland, and was gradually resettled by

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

, many of them from the parts of eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union.

Geography

* Elma river, a tributary of the Łyna River near Lidzbark Warmiński

Sights

The main landmark of Lidzbark Warmiński is the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

Castle of Warmian Bishops with adjacent fortifications, towers and the

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...

Grabowski Palace. Other sights include: *Baroque- Neoclassical Krasicki Orangery (''Oranżeria Krasickiego'') *Gothic Collegiate church of Saints Peter and Paul *Medieval town walls and High Gate (''Brama Wysoka'') *Baroque Exaltation of the Holy Cross church *Town hall *Monument of

Education

Colleges * Wszechnica Warmińska - non-state college founded on 20th November 2003 High schools * Comprehensive Schools im. Kazimierza Jagiellończyka * Trade Schools im. Stanisława Staszica * Farmer School * Catholic High School Primary schools * Primary School No. 1 im. Mikołaja Kopernika * Primary School No. 3 im. Ignacego Krasickiego * Primary School No. 4 im. Jana Pawła II Music schools * National Music School I Level Kindergartens * Non-Public Kindergarten "Kubuś" * Non-Public Kindergarten "Miś" * Non-Public Kindergarten "Puchatek" * Public Kindergarten No. 5 * Public Kindergarten No. 6 Other educational institutions * Youth Educational Centre im. Marii Grzegorzewskiej * Psychological and Pedagogical Counseling Centre * Special School and Educational Centre

Sports

The local

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team is . It competes in the lower leagues.

Twin towns – sister cities

Lidzbark Warmiński is twinned with: * Oud-Beijerland, Netherlands (1992) *

Milanówek Milanówek is a town and a seat of a separate commune in Poland. Located next to the Grodzisk Mazowiecki County near Warsaw, it is often considered an outlying suburb of the capital of Poland but is in fact an independent entity administrativel ...

, Poland (2001) *

Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast Sovetsk (russian: Сове́тск; german: Tilsit; Old Prussian: ''Tilzi''; lt, Tilžė; pl, Tylża) is a town in Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia, located on the south bank of the Neman River which forms the border with Lithuania. Geography Sov ...

, Russia (2001) * Werlte, Germany (2005)

Notable people

Mauritius Ferber Mauritius Ferber ( pl, Maurycy Ferber; 1471 – 1 July 1537) was a member of the patrician Ferber family. As Roman Catholic Prince-Bishop of Warmia (Ermland), he prevented most towns in his diocese from converting to Protestantism while the surrou ...

(1471–1537), member of the patrician Ferber family and Roman Catholic Prince-

Bishop of Warmia This is a list of Bishops and Prince-Bishops of the Diocese of Warmia ( pl, link=no, Diecezja warmińska, la, link=no, Dioecesis Varmiensis, german: link=no, Bistum Ermland), which was elevated to the Archdiocese of Warmia in 1992. The Bisho ...

(1473–1547), famous astronomer, mathematician, physician, and

canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

Stanislaus Hosius Stanislaus Hosius ( pl, Stanisław Hozjusz; 5 May 1504 – 5 August 1579) was a Polish Roman Catholic cardinal. From 1551 he was the Prince-Bishop of the Bishopric of Warmia in Royal Prussia and from 1558 he served as the papal legate to the H ...

(Stanisław Hozjusz) (1504–1579), Polish Roman Catholic cardinal, Prince-

John Albert Vasa John Albert Vasa (''Jan Albert Waza'') (25 June 1612 – 29 December 1634) was a Polish cardinal, and a Prince-Bishop of Warmia and Kraków. He was the son of Sigismund III Vasa and Constance of Austria. Biography John Albert Vasa was born ...

(Jan Albert Waza) (1612–1634), Polish

prince A prince is a male ruler (ranked below a king, grand prince, and grand duke) or a male member of a monarch's or former monarch's family. ''Prince'' is also a title of nobility (often highest), often hereditary, in some European states. Th ...

, cardinal, Prince-Bishop of Warmia and

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

, *

Teodor Andrzej Potocki Teodor Andrzej Potocki (13 February 1664 – 12 December 1738) was a Polish nobleman ( szlachcic), Primate of Poland, interrex in 1733. Teodor was Rector of Przemyśl and canon of Kraków since 1687, Bishop of Chełmno since 1699 and Bish ...

(1664–1738), Prince-Bishop of Warmia,

Primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

of Poland, interrex in 1733 * (ca. 1732–ca. 1780), Polish painter and draughtsman *

(1735–1801), Prince-Bishop of Warmia, Primate of Poland, leading

Polish Enlightenment The ideas of the Age of Enlightenment in Poland were developed later than in Western Europe, as the Polish bourgeoisie was weaker, and szlachta (nobility) culture (Sarmatism) together with the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth political system (Gol ...

poet *

Ernst Burchard Ernst Burchard (9 September 1876 – 5 February 1920) was a German physician, sexologist, and gay rights advocate and author. Burchard, who was gay, testified as an expert witness in several court cases involving prosecutions on grounds of Parag ...

(1876–1920), doctor and scientist *

Dorothee Rätsch Dorothee Rätsch (also spelled Raetsch; born 1940 in Heilsberg, today Lidzbark Warmiński, Poland) is a German sculptor and graphic artist, the daughter of Margarete Neumann, a writer and poet. Biography Up to 1945 Dorothee Rätsch was livi ...

(born 1940), German sculptor and graphic artist * Andrzej Rozbicki (born 1948), Polish-Canadian conductor and music educator * Zbigniew Mikołejko (born 1951), Polish philosopher and historian of religion, essayist *

Tadeusz Płoski Tadeusz Płoski (9 March 1956 – 10 April 2010) was a Polish military bishop and Major General. He was born in Lidzbark Warmiński. He was appointed the Military Ordinary of the Polish Armed Forces, by Pope John Paul II on 16 October 2004. He was ...

(1956–2010), Military Ordinariate of Poland, victim of the

Smolensk air disaster On 10 April 2010, a Tupolev Tu-154 aircraft operating Polish Air Force Flight 101 crashed near the Russian city of Smolensk, killing all 96 people on board. Among the victims were the president of Poland, Lech Kaczyński, and his wife, Maria, ...

* Marek Mikulski (born 1981), Polish Olympic wrestler * Dawid Szymonowicz (born 1995), Polish footballer

References

External links

* *
Map of Warmia Catholic Diocese in 1755
* https://web.archive.org/web/20171010080701/https://www.heilsberg.org/ (in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Lidzbark Warminski Populated places established in the 13th century Cities and towns in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship Lidzbark County