Powidz (pronounced ) is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

in Słupca County,

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. The province is named after the region called Greater Poland (''Wielkopolska'' ). The modern province includes most of this historic re ...

, in west-central Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) called Gmina Powidz. It lies approximately north of Słupca and east of the regional capital

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

. Powidz gives its name to the

protected area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural or cultural values. Protected areas are those areas in which human presence or the exploitation of natural resources (e.g. firewood ...

called Powidz Landscape Park. From the summer of 2019, Powidz’ nearby 33rd Air Base will be the site of a depot and storage site for US Army combat vehicles in Poland. It will be mostly funded by

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

’s Security Investment Program, and cost around US$210m, with the USA’s component capped at around 20-25%. The US Army Corps of Engineers has made an industry solicitation in 2018 requesting tree-cutting services for around the base.NATO foots bill for massive US combat depot in Poland
Sebastian Sprenger, Defense News, 2019-03-29

History

Powidz was granted town rights in 1243 by Duke Bolesław the Pious. It was then part of the Duchy of Greater Poland of fragmented Piast-ruled

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 ...

. Powidz was a royal town of the Polish Crown, administratively located in the Gniezno County in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. The town repelled Teutonic attacks in 1331 and 1454, and received numerous privileges from Polish kings. From the 15th century, Powidz was the seat of local starosts. In the 15th century, a school was created in Powidz, which was subordinate to the Kraków Academy (present-day

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

), the oldest and leading university of Poland. The town suffered in the 17th century as a result of the epidemic and the Swedish invasion. In 1793, as a result of the Second Partition of Poland, it was annexed by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. After the successful Greater Poland uprising of 1806, it was regained by Poles and included with the short-lived

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

, and in 1815 it was re-annexed by Prussia. Many residents took part in the Kościuszko Uprising (1794),

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

(1830), Greater Poland uprising (1848) and January Uprising (1863), and actively opposed Germanisation attempts. In 1918 local Poles joined the Greater Poland uprising (1918–19), in a successful attempt to re-join Poland, which just regained independence. During

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 ...

, Powidz was under German occupation from 1939 to 1945. In late 1939 the Germans expelled 80 Poles, farm owners and activists along with their families, to the so-called

General Government The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...

in the more eastern part of German-occupied Poland, and their houses were handed over to German colonists as part of the '' Heim ins Reich'' policy. The Polish resistance was active in Powidz. Józef Izbiński, commander of the local unit of the Union of Armed Struggle, and Ludwik Gruszka and Bolesław Purek, co-founders of the local unit of the Grey Ranks, were arrested by the Germans in 1942 and then sentenced to death and executed in Rawicz the following year. A

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force () is the aerial warfare Military branch, branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 26,000 military personnel an ...

base was built in Powidz after 1953.

Notable people

* , Polish military officer, victim of the Katyn massacre * , Polish painter * , Polish military officer during the January Uprising, Franciscan

References

{{Authority control Villages in Słupca County Populated lakeshore places in Poland