Połaniec is a town in Staszów County,

Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship ( ), also known as Holy Cross Voivodeship, is a voivodeship (province) in southeastern Poland, in the historical region of Lesser Poland. The province's capital and largest city is Kielce. The voivodeship takes its ...

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 ...

, with 8,406 inhabitants (2012). The town is in Lesser Poland, and its history dates back to the early days of Polish statehood. It lies in the western part of the Sandomierz Basin, a few kilometres north of the

Vistula The Vistula (; ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest in Europe, at in length. Its drainage basin, extending into three other countries apart from Poland, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra i ...

, along the National Road Nr. 79, from Bytom to

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 ...

. The town has a railway station serving a secondary line, nr. 75 from Rytwiany to Połaniec. The Połaniec Power Station, is one of the largest (1800 MW) coal-fired power plants in

and, since 2012, one of the largest

biomass Biomass is a term used in several contexts: in the context of ecology it means living organisms, and in the context of bioenergy it means matter from recently living (but now dead) organisms. In the latter context, there are variations in how ...

plants in the world. It is located outside the town, in the nearby village of Zawada.

History

The history of Połaniec dates back to the 11th century, when a gord was built near the spot where the ''Czarna'' flows into the

. A settlement emerged in the 11th–12th centuries, with St. Catherine church in the vicinity of the gord. In 1241 Połaniec was completely destroyed in the Mongol invasion of Poland, and near the local village of Tursko a battle took place with the invaders. Połaniec recovered, gaining town rights before 1264, and by 1340, it had some 400 residents. Ten years later, in 1350, King Casimir III the Great ordered the town to move from its location on the ''Winna Góra'' hill to its present location. In the late

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, Połaniec was an important trade centre, located along the merchant route from

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

to Sandomierz, and near the very important waterway, the

. It was a royal town of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Sandomierz County in the Sandomierz Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province. At the beginning of the 16th century, Połaniec was burned to the ground by the Crimean Tatars, so that King Zygmunt Stary lowered the residents' taxes. In 1526 the town was once again in a conflagration. In the mid-16th century, a town hall, funded by hetman Jan Tarnowski was erected in Połaniec. At the beginning of the 17th century, a hospital was built. Following the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

in 1772, Połaniec suddenly became a border town of Poland, when the Austrian province of Galicia was created. Establishing a border along the Vistula slowed economic development in Połaniec. In 1794 the town was one of centres of the Kościuszko Uprising: it was the scene of the Proclamation of Połaniec on 7 May 1794. During the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 the town was annexed by

Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...

. After the Polish victory in 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 allied states). In this war, Polish forces of ...

of 1809, it was part of the Polish

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 ...

. After the duchy's dissolution in 1815, it became part of Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of 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 was established w ...

. On 1 June 1869, as a punishment for the January Uprising, it lost its town privileges. At that time, its population was around 2,000. While in the Kielce Voivodeship during the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

Połaniec suffered badly in the 1934 floods. Połaniec had a large Jewish population, who were murdered in the Holocaust by the German occupiers 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 ...

. In 1939, the Polish resistance organized a collection and shipping point for aid packages for

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

who had lost their homes and possessions in other regions, i.e. those arrested or expelled by the Germans and those fleeing

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

-occupied eastern Poland. A smuggling point for Polish underground press was based in the town. Elektrownia Polaniec 20080612

In the 1970s, the ''Tadeusz Kościuszko Power Plant'' was built, and in 1980, Połaniec regained its town rights.

Demography

According to the 2011 Poland census, there were 8,227 people residing in Połaniec, of whom 49.6% were male and 50.4% were female. In the town, the population was distributed such that 18.6% under the age of 18, 40.9% from 18 to 44, 31.8% from 45 to 64, and 8.7% who were 65 or older.

ImageSize = width:420 height:331 PlotArea = left:70 right:15 top:30 bottom:50 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal AlignBars = justify Colors = id:gray1 value:gray(0.9) id:blue1 value:rgb(0.2,0.7,0.8) legend:Male id:red1 value:rgb(1,0.5,0.5) legend:Female id:green1 value:rgb(0,1,0) Legend = orientation:horizontal top:331 left:185 TextData = pos:(201,20) textcolor:black fontsize:S text:Połaniec in 2010 DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:-490 till:490 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:490 start:-490 gridcolor:gray1 PlotData = bar:85+ color:blue1 width:1 from:-10 till:0 width:12 text:10 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:85+ color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:52 width:12 text:52 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:80-84 color:blue1 width:1 from:-35 till:0 width:12 text:35 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:80-84 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:38 width:12 text:38 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:75-79 color:blue1 width:1 from:-46 till:0 width:12 text:46 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:75-79 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:78 width:12 text:78 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:70-74 color:blue1 width:1 from:-54 till:0 width:12 text:54 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:70-74 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:66 width:12 text:66 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:65-69 color:blue1 width:1 from:-74 till:0 width:12 text:74 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:65-69 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:67 width:12 text:67 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:60-64 color:blue1 width:1 from:-226 till:0 width:12 text:226 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:60-64 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:193 width:12 text:193 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:55-59 color:blue1 width:1 from:-378 till:0 width:12 text:378 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:55-59 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:357 width:12 text:357 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:50-54 color:blue1 width:1 from:-479 till:0 width:12 text:479 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:50-54 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:485 width:12 text:485 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:45-49 color:blue1 width:1 from:-304 till:0 width:12 text:304 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:45-49 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:391 width:12 text:391 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:40-44 color:blue1 width:1 from:-196 till:0 width:12 text:196 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:40-44 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:229 width:12 text:229 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:35-39 color:blue1 width:1 from:-244 till:0 width:12 text:244 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:35-39 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:221 width:12 text:221 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:30-34 color:blue1 width:1 from:-289 till:0 width:12 text:289 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:30-34 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:285 width:12 text:285 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:25-29 color:blue1 width:1 from:-464 till:0 width:12 text:464 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:25-29 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:378 width:12 text:378 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:20-24 color:blue1 width:1 from:-404 till:0 width:12 text:404 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:20-24 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:416 width:12 text:416 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:15-19 color:blue1 width:1 from:-257 till:0 width:12 text:257 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:15-19 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:280 width:12 text:280 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:10-14 color:blue1 width:1 from:-232 till:0 width:12 text:232 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:10-14 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:210 width:12 text:210 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:5-9 color:blue1 width:1 from:-166 till:0 width:12 text:166 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:5-9 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:189 width:12 text:189 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:0-4 color:blue1 width:1 from:-220 till:0 width:12 text:220 textcolor:black fontsize:8px bar:0-4 color:red1 width:1 from:0 till:214 width:12 text:214 textcolor:black fontsize:8px

Figure 1. Population pyramid of town in 2010 – by age group and sex

International relations

Twin towns – sister cities

Połaniec is twinned with: * Étoile-sur-Rhône, France (2004) * Šalčininkai, Lithuania (2001) * Stará Ľubovňa, Slovakia (1999) * Svaliava, Ukraine (2005) * Viggiano, Italy (2001) * Vonitsa, Greece (2001)

References

External links

Polish official population figures 2006
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship Populated riverside places in Poland Staszów County Holocaust locations in Poland