Węgrów is a town in eastern
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 ...
with 12,561 inhabitants (31 December 2003). Situated in the
Masovian Voivodeship
The Masovian Voivodeship, also known as the Mazovia Province ( pl, województwo mazowieckie ) is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, with its capital located in the city of Warsaw, which also serves as the capital of the country. The ...
(since 1999), it is the capital of
Węgrów County
__NOTOC__
Węgrów County ( pl, powiat węgrowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government ...
.
History
First mentioned in historical records in 1414, Węgrów received its city charter in 1441. Between 16th and 18th centuries it was an important centre for
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 ...
movements in Poland. It 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.
A ...
owned by various
Polish nobles
The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian language, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the nobility, noble Estates of the realm, estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385), Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the ...
, including the
Kiszka,
Radziwiłł and
Krasiński
Krasiński (sometimes spelled Krasinsky, if originally transliterated from Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian) is a surname of Polish, or generally Slavic, origin.
In its feminine version, the Polish surname becomes Krasińska, and the Russian or Be ...
families, administratively located in the
Podlaskie Voivodeship
Podlaskie Voivodeship or Podlasie Province ( pl, Województwo podlaskie, ) is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. The name of the province and its territory correspond to the historic region of Podlachia. The capital and largest cit ...
in the
Lesser Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. The local Basilica of the Assumption houses the so-called Twardowski Mirror, a
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 ideas ...
mirror from the 16th century associated with the legend of
Sir Twardowski
Sir Twardowski (Polish: ''Pan Twardowski'', ), also known as Master Twardowski (Polish: ''Mistrz Twardowski''), in Polish folklore and literature, is a sorcerer who made a deal with the Devil. Pan Twardowski sold his soul in exchange for special ...
.
After the
Third Partition of Poland
The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polish ...
it was annexed by
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in 1795. It was regained by Poles following the
Austro–Polish War
The Austro-Polish War or Polish-Austrian War was a part of the War of the Fifth Coalition in 1809 (a coalition of the Austrian Empire and the United Kingdom against Napoleon's French Empire and Bavaria). In this war, Polish forces of the N ...
of 1809, and included within the short-lived
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 ...
. After the duchy's dissolution, in 1815, it passed to so-called
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
in the
Russian Partition
The Russian Partition ( pl, zabór rosyjski), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Po ...
of Poland. During the
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 ...
, on February 3, 1863, it was the site of the
Battle of Węgrów
Battle of Węgrów was one of the most important skirmishes of January Uprising in the Russian Partition of Poland. It took place February 3, 1863 near Węgrów in east Masovia. On January 22, Polish partisans liberated a town from Russian forces. ...
, in which Polish insurgents defeated Russian troops and captured the town. It became part of Poland again when the country regained its independence in 1918. During the
Polish–Soviet War
The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921)
* russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...
, on August 19, 1920, it was the site of a battle between Poles and the retreating Russian
16th Army.
Throughout most of its history, the town had a thriving Jewish community, present at least since the 16th century. It numbered about 6,000 in 1939. The entire community was exterminated during
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
by the occupying forces of
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. The town was liberated from
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 ...
by the Polish underground
Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) esta ...
in August 1944 during the
Operation Tempest
file:Akcja_burza_1944.png, 210px, right
Operation Tempest ( pl, akcja „Burza”, sometimes referred to in English as "Operation Storm") was a series of uprisings conducted during World War II against occupying German forces by the Polish Home ...
.
People
*
Krzysztof Filipek
*
Piotr z Goniądza
*
Stanisław Kosior
Stanisław Vikentyevich Kosior (russian: Станислав Викентьевич Косиор, 18 November 1889 – 26 February 1939), sometimes spelled Kossior, was a Soviet politician who was First Secretary of the Communist Party of Ukraine ...
*
Pan Twardowski
Sir Twardowski (Polish: ''Pan Twardowski'', ), also known as Master Twardowski (Polish: ''Mistrz Twardowski''), in Polish folklore and literature, is a sorcerer who made a deal with the Devil. Pan Twardowski sold his soul in exchange for special ...
*
Danuta Wałęsa
Mirosława Danuta Wałęsa ( ''née'' Gołoś; born 25 February 1949), is the wife of the former President of Poland Lech Wałęsa. In 1983 she accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway on behalf of her husband,R. W. APPLE JR., "AWARD IS ACC ...
, former First Lady of Poland (1990-1995)
References
Further reading
*
External links
Official homepage of Węgrów
Jewish Community in Węgrówon Virtual Shtetl
*Górczyk Wojciech Jerzy
BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CHURCH AND FORMER REFORMATI ORDER'S MONASTERY IN WĘGRÓW Węgrów 2020.
*Górczyk Wojciech Jerzy
The Former Reformati Order’s Monasteries Route Węgrów 2020.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wegrow
Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship
Węgrów County
Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Shtetls
Holocaust locations in Poland