Nieszawa (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Nessau) is a town and a commune in the

Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as Cuiavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship or simply Kujawsko-Pomorskie, or Kujawy-Pomerania Province ( pl, województwo kujawsko-pomorskie ) is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divid ...

, in north-central

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

. As of June 30, 2014, the town has a population of 1,985 people. It is located in the historic region of

Kuyavia Kuyavia ( pl, Kujawy; german: Kujawien; la, Cuiavia), also referred to as Cuyavia, is a historical region in north-central Poland, situated on the left bank of Vistula, as well as east from Noteć River and Lake Gopło. It is divided into three ...

History

The Statutes of Nieszawa, enacted in this town at 1454, have a significance in Polish legal and social history. Nieszawa 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 traditio ...

in 1460, and in the following centuries it was a royal town 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, includi ...

, administratively located in the

Brześć Kujawski Voivodeship The Brześć Kujawski Voivodeship ( la, Palatinatus Brestensis, pl, Województwo brzesko-kujawskie) was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Kingdom of Poland (later Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth), from the 14th century ...

in the Greater Poland Province. Following the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

, which started

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in September 1939, the town was invaded and then occupied by Germany. The Germans immediately carried mass arrests of Poles as part of the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...

''. Nieszawa was one of the sites of executions of Poles carried out by Germany in 1939 as part of the ''Intelligenzaktion''. In December 1939, the Germans also expelled around 1,000 Poles from the town. Further expulsions of Poles were carried out in 1940. Houses, offices, shops and workshops of expelled Poles were handed over to

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

as part of the ''

Lebensraum (, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Impe ...

'' policy.Wardzyńska, p. 178, 225 In 1945 the German occupation ended and the town was restored to Poland, although with a

Soviet 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 ...

-installed communist regime, which remained in power until the

Fall of Communism The Revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, was a revolutionary wave that resulted in the end of most communist states in the world. Sometimes this revolutionary wave is also called the Fall of Nations or the Autumn of Nat ...

in the 1980s.

Sights

The most important historic landmarks and sights of the town are 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 ...

Church of

Saint Hedwig Saint Hedwig may refer to: * Saint Hedwig of Silesia Hedwig of Silesia ( pl, Święta Jadwiga Śląska), also Hedwig of Andechs (german: Heilige Hedwig von Andechs, la, Hedvigis; 1174 – 15 October 1243), a member of the Bavarian comital Ho ...

(High Duchess consort of Poland), built in the 15th century, which possesses rich Gothic-

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...

- Baroque interior, the Baroque Franciscan Monastery with the Church of the Invention of the Holy Cross, the Stanisław Noakowski Museum dedicated to Polish architect and artist Stanisław Noakowski, located in his former home, and the historic market square filled with old townhouses and the town hall.

Notable people

* Stanisław Noakowski (1867-1928), Polish architect, watercolorist and art historian * Ferdynand Antoni Ossendowski (1876–1945), Polish writer, explorer, university professor and anti-Communist activist * (1881-1945), Polish teacher and parliamentarian

Gallery

Nieszawa muzeum Noakowskiego.jpg, Stanisław Noakowski Museum located in his former home Nieszawa pomnik Powstancow Styczniowych 02.jpg, Monument to

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

participants Church in Nieszawa from the seventeenth century.jpg, Baroque Invention of the Holy Cross church Nieszawa urzad pocztowy.jpg, Post office

References

External links

Nieszawa's official website

Official website of the local newspaper

NKS Jagiellonka Nieszawa - local football club's website
Cities and towns in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Aleksandrów County 15th-century establishments in Poland Populated places established in the 1460s Populated places on the Vistula Warsaw Governorate Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939) Pomeranian Voivodeship (1919–1939) {{Aleksandrów-geo-stub