Pleszew

Pleszew ([ˈplɛʂɛf]; German: Pleschen) is a town in Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship, about 90 km southeast of Poznań. It is the capital of Pleszew County (powiat pleszewski). Population is 17,892 (2004).

Pleszew
Town hall
Flag
Coat of arms
Pleszew
Coordinates: 51°53′N 17°47′E
Country Poland
VoivodeshipGreater Poland
CountyPleszew County
GminaGmina Pleszew
Town rights1283
Government
 • MayorArkadiusz Ptak
Area
 • Total13.19 km2 (5.09 sq mi)
Population
 (2006)
 • Total17,787
 • Density1,300/km2 (3,500/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
63-300
Area code(s)+48 62
Car platesPPL
ClimateDfb
Websitehttp://www.pleszew.pl/

History
Guild document from Pleszew from 1630

The oldest permanent human settlements in the present-day Pleszew and its surroundings date back to the 9th century BC.[1] The oldest known mention of Pleszew, already as a town, comes from a 1283 document of - in the document of Duke and future King of Poland Przemysł II of the Piast dynasty.[1] In the following centuries it was a private town owned by Polish nobility, located in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. King John I Albert in the privilege of 1493 permitted the organization of two weekly markets and two annual fairs.[1] In the early 16th century, there were nine craft guilds in the town.[1] Pleszew was a local center of Reformation. In the 18th century, one of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through Pleszew and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland traveled that route numerous times.[2]

Polish insurgents in Pleszew in January 1919

During the First Partition of Poland, in 1793, Pleszew was annexed by Prussia.[1] It was regained by Poles as part of the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, before it was re-annexed by Prussia in 1815. It was an important center of the unsuccessful Polish Greater Poland uprising (1848).[1] In the following decades, to resist Germanisation, Poles founded various organizations, including agricultural, industrial and educational societies, the Cooperative Bank (Bank Spółdzielczy.), a printing house, scout troops and a local branch of the "Sokół" Polish Gymnastic Society.[1] In the second half of the 19th century, new industrial factories were established.[1] Many inhabitants took part in the Greater Poland uprising (1918–19), which aim was to reintegrate the town along with the region of Greater Poland with Poland, after the country regained independence in 1918. The Poles took control of the city in January 1919.

On the day of the German invasion of Poland (World War II), on September 1, Germany unsuccessfully raided Polish military barracks, killing 13 civilians.[1] Wehrmacht troops entered the town a week later. During the German occupation of Poland, the Polish population was subject to mass arrests, executions and expulsions. Shortly after capturing the town, the Germans established a prison for Polish people in the town.[3] During the Intelligenzaktion, in October 1939, the Germans executed 7 Poles in the Boreczek forest.[4] Another 68 Poles were killed in the prison, and 8 Poles were murdered at the Gestapo station.[5] Nevertheless, the Polish resistance movement in Pleszew was organized already in October 1939.[1] The town was captured by the Soviets in January 1945, and was soon restored to Poland.

In 1983 the 700th anniversary of Pleszew was celebrated,[1] in reference to the first known historical mention of the town in 1283.

Sights

Among the historic sights of Pleszew are the Market Square (Rynek) with the Town Hall (Ratusz), the Regional Museum, the churches of Beheading of Saint John the Baptist, of Saint Florian and of the Holy Savior, and other historic buildings, including headquarters of historic organizations, townhouses and schools. There also numerous memorials at the sites of killings of Poles carried out by the Germans during the occupation of Poland.

  • High school
  • Church of the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist
  • Memorial stone in the Boreczek forest at the site of a German execution of 7 Poles in 1939
  • Shopping mall

People

International relations
See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Poland

Twin towns — Sister cities

Pleszew is twinned with:

gollark: > I forgot, has styropyro done a raid shadow legends advert before?Sadly, yes.
gollark: Maybe they're doing something cleverer and using this to cover it.
gollark: With access to lots of Twitter accounts I think you might actually be able to... probably significantly influence world politics.
gollark: Cereal company propaganda.
gollark: I mean, video hosting is just a technical problem, and a mostly solved one at least for small channels, the hard thing is that YouTube provides ad revenue and shows your videos to people.

See also

References
  1. "Skrót dziejów miasta". Pleszew.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  2. "Informacja historyczna". Dresden-Warszawa (in Polish). Retrieved 1 March 2020.
  3. Maria Wardzyńska, Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion, IPN, Warszawa, 2009, p. 117 (in Polish)
  4. Wardzyńska, Op. cit., p. 201
  5. "Na pleszewskich grobach zapłonął Znicz Pamięci". Pleszew Nasze Miasto (in Polish). Retrieved 1 March 2020.
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