Ciechanowiec (; )JewishGen Locality Page - Ciechanowiec, Poland
, from

Museum of Jewish Heritage The Museum of Jewish Heritage, located on Edmond J. Safra Plaza in Battery Park City in Manhattan, New York City, is a historical museum and a memorial to those murdered in The Holocaust. The museum has received more than two million visitors ...

. is a small town in

Gmina Ciechanowiec __NOTOC__ Gmina Ciechanowiec is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Wysokie Mazowieckie County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. Its seat is the town of Ciechanowiec, which lies approximately south of Wysokie Mazowiec ...

Wysokie Mazowieckie County __NOTOC__ Wysokie Mazowieckie County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms ...

Podlaskie Voivodeship Podlaskie Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in northeastern Poland. The name of the voivodeship refers to the historical region of Podlachia (in Polish, ''Podlasie''), and significant part of its territory corresponds to th ...

, eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. In December 2021, the town had a population of 4,511.

History

From the 5th century BC until the 10th century,

Yotvingians Yotvingians, also called Sudovians, Jatvians, or Jatvingians, were a Western Baltic people who were closely tied to the Old Prussians. The linguist Petras Būtėnas asserts that they were closest to the Lithuanians. The Yotvingians contributed ...

, a

Baltic tribe The Balts or Baltic peoples (, ) are a group of peoples inhabiting the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea who speak Baltic languages. Among the Baltic peoples are modern-day Lithuanians (including Samogitians) and Latvians (including Latgalians ...

close to the

Lithuanians Lithuanians () are a Balts, Baltic ethnic group. They are native to Lithuania, where they number around 2,378,118 people. Another two million make up the Lithuanian diaspora, largely found in countries such as the Lithuanian Americans, United Sta ...

, lived in the areas around Ciechanowiec. From the 13th–14th centuries until 1513, the lands belonged to the

Trakai Voivodeship Trakai Voivodeship, Trakai Palatinate, or Troki Voivodeship (, , ), was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from 1413 until 1795. History Trakai Voivodeship together with Vilnius Voivodeship wa ...

of the

Grand Duchy of Lithuania The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a sovereign state in northeastern Europe that existed from the 13th century, succeeding the Kingdom of Lithuania, to the late 18th century, when the territory was suppressed during the 1795 Partitions of Poland, ...

. Then, they were part of the

from 1513 until 1795 (1513–1569 as part of Lithuania and 1569–1795 as part of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

in the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

). In 1429, the

Grand Duke of Lithuania This is a list of Lithuanian monarchs who ruled Lithuania from its inception until the fall of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in 1795. The Lithuanian monarch bore the title of Grand duke, Grand Duke, with the exception of Mindaugas, who was crown ...

Vytautas the Great Vytautas the Great (; 27 October 1430) was a ruler of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. He was also the prince of Grodno (1370–1382), prince of Lutsk (1387–1389), and the postulated king of the Hussites. In modern Lithuania, Vytautas is revere ...

granted Ciechanowiec the settlement

Magdeburg rights Magdeburg rights (, , ; also called Magdeburg Law) were a set of town privileges first developed by Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor (936–973) and based on the Flemish Law, which regulated the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages gr ...

and its coat of arms. In the 16th century, the city belonged to the

Kiszka family The Kiszka family (plural Kiszkowie, ) was a noble family (szlachta) and one of the most powerful families (magnates) of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Originating from Mazovia, the family used the Coat of a ...

. In the mid-16th century Castellan of

Trakai Trakai (; see Trakai#Names and etymology, names section for alternative and historic names) is a city and lake resort in Lithuania. It lies west of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania or just from the administrative limits of the Lithuanian capi ...

Piotr Kiszka Piotr Kiszka (died in 1534) was a noble of the House of Kiszka from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. According to the military census of 1528, he was the 10th wealthiest magnate in the Grand Duchy. In case of war he had to provide 224 fully equippe ...

built a castle on the right bank of the river Nurzec, northeast of the town. Between 1617–1642, Mikołaj Kiszka ordered to build heavy defensive walls around the fortress, but soon the castle burned down during the

Deluge A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood. The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the biblical book of Genesis. Deluge or Le Déluge may also refer to: History *Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-L ...

, and the surviving buildings with the newly-built residence for the Ossoliński family were later blown up and destroyed by the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army () was the army of the Russian Empire, active from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was organized into a standing army and a state militia. The standing army consisted of Regular army, regular troops and ...

during

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

(1915). To this day only the foundations and the moat still exist. The forthcoming owners of the city were: The Bremmer, Ossoliński, Szczukow and Ciecierski families. In particular, the Ossoliński family in the second half of the seventeenth century invested in the development of the city. In 1736–1739, a brick church of the Holy Trinity and the Sisters of Mercy hospital was built, according to the draft of Warmia's architect Jan Adrian Kluk. His son, Fr.

Jan Krzysztof Kluk Jan Krzysztof Kluk (September 13, 1739 – July 2, 1796) was a Polish naturalist agronomist and entomologist. He was the son of Jan Krzysztof Adrian and Marianna Elżbieta. His father, an impoverished nobleman, was a building contractor and ...

(1739–1796), the local parish priest, devoted to natural history, became one of the most important Polish naturalists of the Enlightenment. He is the author of the first comprehensive textbook in the

Polish language Polish (, , or simply , ) is a West Slavic languages, West Slavic language of the Lechitic languages, Lechitic subgroup, within the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, and is written in the Latin script. It is primarily spo ...

on agriculture, as well as other pioneering scientific topics, as well as school textbooks written on request of the

Commission of National Education The Commission of National Education (, KEN, ) was the central educational authority in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, created by the Sejm and King Stanisław August Poniatowski, Stanisław II August on October 14, 1773. Because of its ...

. The scope of the research included both

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

zoology Zoology ( , ) is the scientific study of animals. Its studies include the anatomy, structure, embryology, Biological classification, classification, Ethology, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinction, extinct, and ...

, and natural pharmaceuticals. In the era of the partitions, Ciechanowiec was passed onto Prussia, and after the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon, Napol ...

to the Russian Empire. Later the city was divided into two parts: right bank (called New Town or "Polish section"), was part of the Polish Kingdom and the left bank Old Town ("Rus section") in Russia. As a result of the

November November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 30 days. November was the ninth month of the calendar of Romulus . November retained its name (from the Latin ''novem'' meaning " ...

and

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

s, the right bank of Ciechanowiec lost the city rights in 1870. At the end of the nineteenth century, the textile industry rapidly developed in the city. Ciechanowiec was also very popular for various horse fairs. Significant damage from the times of

and the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

were slowly repaired in the interwar period. Before the beginning of

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, 55% of the town's inhabitants were

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

. At that time the city was known to a large number of workshops, mainly Jewish. In 1938, the left bank of Ciechanowiec (then located in the district of Bielsko) was attached to the right part of the town (on the status of the settlement), previously located in the district of Wysokomazowieckie (in the municipality of Klukowo). During

, the city was badly destroyed, as a result of the

Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...

, first by the soldiers of the Red Army, and after June 1941 by the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

. The Jewish population was almost completely exterminated at the

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Mas ...

. After the war, reconstruction lasted a long time and the city has not regained its former importance and population that it once had. Jewish family names like ''Ciechanowiec, Ciechanowiecki, Ciechanowicz, Ciechanowski'' and ''Chechanover'' originated from this town.

Geography

Ciechanowiec is located in eastern Poland about northeast from

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and around west from the

Białowieża Forest Białowieża Forest is a large forest complex on the border between Poland and Belarus. It is one of the last and the largest remaining part of the immense primeval forest that once stretched across the European Plain. The forest is home to more ...

in the Territory of Preserved Landscape of the Valley of the Bug and Nurzec Rivers. The Nurzec River divides the town into two parts: the Left Side and the Right Side.

Demographics

According to the

1921 census The United Kingdom Census 1921 was a census of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that was carried out on 19 June 1921. It was postponed for two months from April due to industrial unrest and no census was taken in Ireland due to the ...

, the village was inhabited by 3,291 people, among whom 1,568 were Roman Catholic, 39 Orthodox, 34 Evangelical and 1,649 Jewish. At the same time, 1,653 inhabitants declared Polish nationality, 21 German, 11 Belarusian and 1,693 Jewish. There were 361 residential buildings in the village.''Skorowidz miejscowości Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej: opracowany na podstawie wyników pierwszego powszechnego spisu ludności z dn. 30 września 1921 r. i innych źródeł urzędowych.'', t. T. 5, województwo białostockie, 1924, s. 19. Detailed data as of 31 December 2021:

Monuments

* The Holy Trinity Church * The monastery-hospital complex * The Lord's Ascension Orthodox Church * The Mansion-Park Complex * Mazowiecko-Podlaski Open-Air Museum of Agriculture

Notable people

Alexander Chizhevsky Alexander Leonidovich Chizhevsky ( rus, Алекса́ндр Леони́дович Чиже́вский, p=tɕɪˈʐɛfskʲɪj; 7 February 1897 – 20 December 1964) was a Soviet Union, Soviet-era interdisciplinary scientist, a biophysics, biophy ...

Benjamin Mazar Benjamin Mazar (; born Binyamin Zeev Maisler, June 28, 1906 – September 9, 1995) was a pioneering Israeli historian, recognized as the "dean" of biblical archaeologists. He shared the national passion for the archaeology of Israel that also at ...

(1906-1995), Israeli historian and archeologist; President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem * Salomon Rosenblum * Ivan Solonevich * (not native)

References

External links

Ciechanowiec Online

JewishGen Locality Page - Ciechanowiec, Poland
from

. {{Authority control Cities and towns in Podlaskie Voivodeship Wysokie Mazowieckie County Holocaust locations in Poland Historic Jewish communities in Poland