Three Emperors' Corner (, , ) is a former

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

at the confluence of the Black and White

Przemsza The Przemsza () is a river in the south of Poland, and a tributary of the Vistula. According to one view, it originates at the confluence of the Black () Przemsza and White (''Biała'') Przemsza, between the towns of Mysłowice and Jaworzno. For ...

rivers, near the towns of Mysłowice,

Sosnowiec Sosnowiec is an industrial city county in the Dąbrowa Basin of southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship, which is also part of the Metropolis GZM municipal association.—— Located in the eastern part of the Upper Silesian Industrial Re ...

and

Jaworzno Jaworzno is a City with powiat rights, city county in southern Poland in the Silesian Voivodeship, near Katowice. It lies in the Silesian Highlands, on the Przemsza river (a tributary of the Vistula River, Vistula). Jaworzno belongs to Lesser Pol ...

in the present-day

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship ( ) is an administrative province in southern Poland. With over 4.2 million residents and an area of 12,300 square kilometers, it is the second-most populous, and the most-densely populated and most-urbanized region of Poland ...

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 ...

. During the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

, from 1871 to 1918, it marked the place at which the borders of three empires that had divided Poland – the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

and the

German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...

– met.

History

It developed in the aftermath of the

as a result of the border shifts and regime changes in the 19th century, including the annexation of the Free City of Kraków by the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...

after the unsuccessful

Kraków Uprising The Kraków Uprising ( Polish: ''powstanie krakowskie'', ''rewolucja krakowska''; German: ''Krakauer Aufstand''; Russian: ''краковское восстание'') of 1846 was an attempt, led by Polish insurgents such as Jan Tyssowski and ...

in 1846. The left bank of the White Przemsza now belonged to the Austrian

Grand Duchy of Cracow Grand may refer to: People with the name * Grand (surname) * Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor Places * Grand, Oklahoma, USA * Grand, Vosges, village and commune in France with Gallo-Roman amphitheatre * Grand County (disambiguation) ...

(part of the

Austro-Hungarian monarchy Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military and diplomatic alliance, it consist ...

from 1867). While the

Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...

n right bank of the Black Przemsza had been within the boundaries of the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...

since 1335 and passed in 1742 over from Austria to

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, ...

, the land between the two tributaries was part of

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 ...

, a ''de facto'' protectorate of the

according to the Final Act of the 1815

Vienna Congress 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 ...

. However, the spot did not become a Three

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

s' Corner until Prussia merged into the newly created

in 1871. It remained as such till the dissolution of all three empires in the

aftermath of World War I The aftermath of World War I saw far-reaching and wide-ranging cultural, economic, and social change across Europe, Asia, Africa, and in areas outside those that were directly involved. Four empires collapsed due to the war, old countries were a ...

and the establishment of 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 ...

in 1918.

A less famous tripoint of those three powers had already existed near the village of Niemirów following the 1795

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 Polis ...

, which ended 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 ...

. Here the Prussian province of New East Prussia and Austrian West Galicia bordered on Russia. The creation of the

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 ...

on former Prussian territory by

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

in 1807 erased it, and the Duchy's transformation into Congress Poland and the

condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership regime in which a building (or group of buildings) is divided into multiple units that are either each separately owned, or owned in common with exclusive rights of occupation by individual own ...

of Kraków in 1815 led to a more stable tripoint at a new location, which lasted for over a century. The Congress Kingdom of Poland would however lose most of its autonomy after the

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. ...

in 1830/31 and the

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 ...

in 1863/64, later becoming incorporated as Russian

Vistula Land Vistula Land, also known as Vistula Country (; ), was the name applied to the lands of Congress Poland from 1867, following the defeats of the November Uprising (1830–1831) and January Uprising (1863–1864) as it was increasingly stripped of ...

(''Privislinsky Krai''). Finally, until the creation of the German Empire in 1871, the spot was known as the Three Countries' Corner (). From 1871 it assumed its most famous name: the Three Emperors' Corner.Zapomniane miejsce
Gościniec PTTK, Kwartalnik, 4 (12)/2003, Until World War I, the tripoint was a popular tourist spot, particularly from the German Empire. Two riverboats toured its vicinity, and in 1907, the German authorities had a -high Bismarck tower erected on the Przemsza shore according to the standard ''Götterdämmerung'' design by

Wilhelm Kreis Wilhelm Kreis (17 March 1873 – 13 August 1955) was a prominent German architect and professor of architecture, active through four political systems in German history: the Wilhelmine era, the Weimar Republic, the Third Reich, and the found ...

. As reported in contemporary newspapers, between 3,000 and 8,000 people visited the spot every week. The tripoint was abolished with the establishment of the Polish voivodeships of

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 ...

and

Kielce Kielce (; ) is a city in south-central Poland and the capital of the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. In 2021, it had 192,468 inhabitants. The city is in the middle of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains (Holy Cross Mountains), on the banks of the Silnic ...

on the former Austro-Hungarian and Russian territory in 1919. The German territory also fell to the Polish

upon the Upper Silesian plebiscite in 1921. Finally, in the place of the corner, there existed a tripoint of three Polish voivodeships in the interwar period: Silesian voivodeship ( Mysłowice), Kraków voivodeship (

) and Kielce voivodeship (

). The Bismarck tower survived for a little over a decade, and was briefly renamed the Freedom Tower, before Silesian voivode Michał Grażyński had it demolished from 1933 onwards; the stones were used to build the Cathedral of Christ the King in

Katowice Katowice (, ) is the capital city of the Silesian Voivodeship in southern Poland and the central city of the Katowice urban area. As of 2021, Katowice has an official population of 286,960, and a resident population estimate of around 315,000. K ...

. Currently located in an industrial area, the tripoint is a minor tourist attraction in Poland. Since 2004, it was marked by a memorial plaque, which—slightly incorrectly—referred to the spot as where three territories annexed in the Partitions of Poland met. A new plaque was amended in 2012. Between 1774 and 1877, a similar imperial tripoint existed by the city of

Novoselytsia Novoselytsia (, ; , ; ; ) is a city in Chernivtsi Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast, Chernivtsi Raion, Chernivtsi Oblast (oblast, province) of Ukraine. It stands at the northern tip of Bessarabia region, on its border with Bukovina. It hosts the administra ...

on the

Prut River The Prut (also spelled in English as Pruth; , ) is a river in Eastern Europe. It is a left tributary of the Danube, and is long. Part of its course forms Romania's border with Moldova and Ukraine. Characteristics The Prut originates on the eas ...

: the one between the Austrian (in

Bukovina Bukovina or ; ; ; ; , ; see also other languages. is a historical region at the crossroads of Central and Eastern Europe. It is located on the northern slopes of the central Eastern Carpathians and the adjoining plains, today divided betwe ...

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

(in

Bessarabia Bessarabia () is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds of Bessarabia lies within modern-day Moldova, with the Budjak region covering the southern coa ...

) and Ottoman (in the

United Principalities The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia (), commonly called United Principalities or Wallachia and Moldavia, was the personal union of the Moldavia, Principality of Moldavia and the Wallachia, Principality of Wallachia. The union was ...

) empires.

References

External links

Old German postcards from Dreikaisereck
* On the Bismarck Tower

) {{Coord, 50, 13, 46.92, N, 19, 09, 26.98, E, type:landmark, display=title Geography of Austria-Hungary History of Poland (1795–1918) German Empire Russian Empire Tourism in Poland Border tripoints Mysłowice 1871 establishments in Europe 1918 disestablishments in Europe

History

See also

References

External links