Wieruszów (; german: Weruschau) is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an ori ...

in south-central

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 8,446 inhabitants (2020). Situated in the southwestern part of

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province- voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź Voivodeship (1975–1999) and the Sier ...

, it is the seat of the Gmina Wieruszów and Wieruszów County. The town is situated along the Prosna river.

History

Wieruszów 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 ...

, when it was part of

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (c. 930–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of king Casimir III the Great. Branche ...

-ruled Poland. The town developed in the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

under the patronage of the Polish noble Wierusz family. 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. ...

, administratively located in the Sieradz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. The local Catholic parish was erected in 1386 by Przecław of Pogorzela, Bishop of Wrocław. In 1401, Bernard Wierusz founded the Pauline monastery.

Augustyn Kordecki Abbot Augustyn Kordecki (born Klemens Kordecki Ślepowron coat of arms; November 16, 1603 – March 20, 1673) was a prior of the Jasna Góra Monastery, Poland. He was curate and provincial of the monastery. In 1655 during the Deluge he led t ...

, prior of the

Jasna Góra Monastery The Jasna Góra Monastery ( pl, Jasna Góra , ''Luminous Mount'', hu, Fényes Hegy, lat, Clarus Mons) in Częstochowa, Poland, is a shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary and one of the country's places of pilgrimage. The image of the Black Mad ...

in Częstochowa, commander of the heroic and successful Polish defense of Jasna Góra during the Swedish invasion in 1655, died in the monastery in Wieruszów in 1673. The monastery was rebuilt in its present form in 1676 in Baroque style. The church interior contains nine Baroque altars and choir stalls from 1682. There is a portrait of Bernard Wierusz, the first owner and founder of the church at the choir. The town 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 ...

in 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, then regained by Poles and included within the newly established, but 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 ...

in 1807, and in 1815 it passed to 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, while its Podzamcze suburb fell again to Prussia, and from 1871 formed part of

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. As punishment for the unsuccessful Polish January Uprising, Wieruszów was among over 300 towns stripped of their town rights by the Tsarist administration in 1869–1870, and the Pauline monastery was closed down. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and Wieruszów was reintegrated with Poland, while Podzamcze was still held by Germany. Town rights were restored. In April 1919, the German artillery fired 18 shells from Podzamcze at a crowd at the town's weekly market, killing seven people, including a 9-year-old boy. From June to August 1919, the Germans repeatedly shelled the town and attempted an invasion, but were repelled by the Poles. Dozens of houses were destroyed. Soon after, as a result of the successful Greater Poland Uprising against Germany, Podzamcze was restored to Poland. A monument to the insurgents was erected in Podzamcze in 1925. Until World War II, the town had a significant

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

population of more than 2,000.

World War II

As a result of 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 aft ...

, 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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany. The Germans immediately murdered several

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 C ...

and Jews and kidnapped others. Later on, Wieruszów was annexed directly to

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 Germans destroyed the monument of the heroes of the Greater Poland Uprising. Over the next two years, the Germans kidnapped Jews for forced labour, required them to live in a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

in the poorest part of town, turning over their former residences to Poles, and sent both men and women to work camps near

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

. In August 1942, the remaining Jews were rounded up and held in a local monastery for several days. Several Jews were murdered there. Others were sent to the

Łódź Ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of ...

, and the remainder, perhaps 800–900, were taken by train to the

Chełmno extermination camp , known for = , location = Near Chełmno nad Nerem, ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (German-occupied Poland) , built by = , operated by = , commandant = Herbert Lange, Christian Wirth , original use = , construction = , in operatio ...

where they were immediately gassed. After that, local Poles were forced to move into the houses vacated by Jewish townspeople. After the war, a few Jewish survivors returned to Wieruszów but left after several Jews were murdered. The number of survivors is unknown.

Post-war history

The Greater Poland Uprising monument was rebuilt after the war, and it now also commemorates the victims of both world wars. Podzamcze was included with the town limits in 1973. In 1973, during the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the death of

, the former Pauline church was graced by the presence of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła - the future

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

and Cardinal

Stefan Wyszyński Stefan Wyszyński (3 August 1901 – 28 May 1981) was a Polish prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the bishop of Lublin from 1946 to 1948, archbishop of Warsaw and archbishop of Gniezno from 1948 to 1981. He was created a cardinal on ...

. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of the Kalisz Voivodeship, and since 1999 it is part of the Łódź Voivodeship.

Transport

The Polish Expressway S8 (highway) runs just outside of the town limits, and the

Voivodeship road According to classes and categories of public roads in Poland, a voivodeship road ( pl, droga wojewódzka) is a category of roads one step below national roads in importance. The roads are numbered from 100 to 993. Total length of voivodeship r ...

s 450 and 482 pass through the town. There is also a train station.

Sports

Local sports clubs include football team Prosna Wieruszów, youth

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

club Start Wieruszów, and martial arts club Husaria Wieruszów.

Notable residents

* Abbot

, died here. * Piotr Paweł Morta, a Polish political activist, dissident, economist, co-inventor, activist in underground "Solidarity".

References

Cities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship Wieruszów County Kalisz Governorate Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939) Nazi war crimes in Poland Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust {{Wieruszów-geo-stub