Place:Toruń, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Poland

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Toruń is a historical city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021.^[1] Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–1998) and the Pomeranian Voivodeship (1921–1945). Since 1999, Toruń has been a seat of the self-government of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is one of its two capitals, together with Bydgoszcz. The cities and neighboring counties form the Bydgoszcz–Toruń twin city metropolitan area.

Toruń is one of the oldest cities in Poland; it was first settled in the 8th century and in 1233 was expanded by the Teutonic Knights. For centuries it was home to people of diverse backgrounds and religions. From 1264 until 1411, Toruń was part of the Hanseatic League and by the 17th century a leading trading point, which greatly affected the city's architecture, ranging from Brick Gothic to Mannerist and Baroque.

In the Early Modern period, Toruń was a royal city of Poland and one of Poland's four largest cities. With the partitions of Poland in the late 18th century, it became part of Prussia, then of the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw, serving as the temporary Polish capital in 1809,^[2] then again of Prussia, of the German Empire and, after World War I, of the reborn Polish Republic. During the Second World War, Toruń was spared bombing and destruction; its Old Town and iconic central marketplace have been entirely preserved.

Toruń is renowned for its Museum of Gingerbread – the gingerbread-baking tradition dates back nearly a millennium – as well as for its large Cathedral. Toruń is noted for its very high standard of living and quality of life. In 1997 the medieval part of the city was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In 2007 the Old Town of Toruń was added to the list of Seven Wonders of Poland.

History

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Middle Ages

The first settlement in the vicinity of Toruń is dated by archaeologists to 1100 BC (Lusatian culture). During early medieval times, in the 7th through 13th centuries, it was the location of an old Slavonic settlement, at a ford in the Vistula river. In the 10th century it became part of the emerging Polish state ruled by the Piast dynasty.

In spring 1231 the Teutonic Knights crossed the river Vistula at the height of Nieszawa and established a fortress. On 28 December 1233, the Teutonic Knights Hermann von Salza and Hermann Balk, signed the city charters for Toruń (Thorn) and Chełmno (Kulm). The original document was lost in 1244. The set of rights in general is known as Kulm law. In 1236, due to frequent flooding,^[3] it was relocated to the present site of the Old Town. In 1239 Franciscan friars settled in the city, followed in 1263 by Dominicans. In 1264 the adjacent New Town was founded predominantly to house Torun's growing population of craftsmen and artisans, who predominantly came from German-speaking lands. In 1280, the city (or as it was then, both cities) joined the mercantile Hanseatic League, and thus became an important medieval trade centre.

The city was recaptured by Poland in 1410 during the Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War however, after the First Peace of Thorn was signed in the city in February 1411, the city fell back to the Teutonic Order. In 1411, the city left the Hanseatic League. In the 1420s, Polish King Władysław II Jagiełło built the Dybów Castle, located in present-day left-bank Toruń, which he visited numerous times. During the next big Polish–Teutonic War, the Dybów Castle was occupied by the Teutonic Knights from 1431 to 1435.^[4]

In 1440, the gentry of Thorn co-founded the Prussian Confederation to further oppose the Knights' policies. From 1452, talks between the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon and the burghers of the Confederation were held in the Dybów Castle.^[4] The Confederation rose against the Monastic state of the Teutonic Knights in 1454 and its delegation submitted a petition to Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon asking him to regain power over the region as the rightful ruler. An act of incorporation was signed in Kraków (6 March 1454), recognizing the region (including Toruń), as part of the Polish Kingdom. These events led to the Thirteen Years' War. The citizens of the city enraged by the Order's ruthless exploitation, conquered the Teutonic castle, and dismantled the fortifications brick by brick, except for the Gdanisko tower which was used until the 18th century for the gunpowder storage. The local mayor pledged allegiance to the Polish King during the incorporation in March 1454 in Kraków, and then in May 1454, an official ceremony was held in Toruń, during which the nobility, knights, landowners, mayors and local officials from Chełmno Land, including Toruń, again solemnly swore allegiance to the Polish King and the Kingdom of Poland. Since 1454, the city was authorized by King Casimir IV to mint Polish coins. During the war, Casimir IV often stayed at the Dybów Castle and Toruń financially supported the Polish Army. The New and Old Towns amalgamated in 1454. The Thirteen Years' War ended in 1466, with the Second Peace of Thorn, in which the Teutonic Order renounced any claims to the city and recognised it as part of Poland. The Polish King granted the town great privileges, similar to those of Gdańsk. Also in 1454, in the Dybów Castle, the King issued the famous Statutes of Nieszawa, covering a set of privileges for the Polish nobility; an event that is regarded as the birth of the noble democracy in Poland, which lasted until the country's demise in 1795.

Early modern period

Throughout history, the city was home to notable personas, scholars and statesmen. In 1473, Nicolaus Copernicus was born, and, in 1501, Polish King John I Albert died in Toruń; his heart was buried inside St. John's Cathedral. In 1500, the Tuba Dei, which was the largest church bell in Poland at that time, was placed in the church of St. John the Baptist, and a bridge across the Vistula was built, which was the country's longest wooden bridge at that time. In 1506, Toruń became a royal city of Poland. In 1528, the royal mint started operating in Toruń. In 1568, a gymnasium was founded, which after 1594 became one of the leading schools of northern Poland for the centuries to come. Also in 1594, the Toruń's first museum (Musaeum) was established at the school, beginning the city's museal traditions. A city of great wealth and influence, it enjoyed voting rights during the royal election period. Sejms of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were held in Toruń in 1576 and 1626.

In 1557, during the Protestant Reformation, the city adopted Protestantism. Under Mayor Henryk Stroband (1586–1609), the city became centralized. Administrative power passed into the hands of the city council. In 1595, Jesuits arrived to promote the Counter-Reformation, taking control of St John's Church. The Protestant city officials tried to limit the influx of Catholics into the city, as Catholics (Jesuits and Dominican friars) already controlled most of the churches, leaving only St Mary's to Protestant citizens. In 1645, at a time when religious conflicts occurred in many other European countries and the disastrous Thirty Years' War was fought west of Poland, in Toruń, on the initiative of King Władysław IV Vasa, a three-month congress of European Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists was held, known as Colloquium Charitativum; an important event in the history of interreligious dialogue.

During the Great Northern War (1700–21), the city was besieged by Swedish troops. The restoration of Augustus II the Strong as King of Poland was prepared in the city in the Treaty of Thorn (1709) by Russian Tsar Peter the Great. In the second half of the 17th century, tensions between Catholics and Protestants grew, similarly to religious wars throughout Europe. In the early 18th century about 50 percent of the populace, especially the gentry and middle class, were German-speaking Protestants, while the other 50 percent were Polish-speaking Roman Catholics. Protestant influence was subsequently pushed back after the Tumult of Thorn of 1724.

Late modern period (from 1793)

After the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the city was annexed by Prussia. It was briefly regained by Poles as part of the Duchy of Warsaw in years 1807–1815, even serving as the temporary capital in April and May 1809. During these years the city began to attract a growing Jewish community. In 1809, Toruń was successfully defended by the Poles against the Austrians. After being re-annexed by Prussia in 1815, Toruń was subjected to Germanisation and became a strong center of Polish resistance against such policies. The city's first synagogue was inaugurated in 1847.^[5] New Polish institutions were established, such as Towarzystwo Naukowe w Toruniu (Toruń Scientific Society), a major Polish institution in the Prussian Partition of Poland, founded in 1875.

In 1976, it was awarded the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of highest Polish decorations. After World War I, Poland declared independence and regained control over the city. In interwar Poland, Toruń was capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

World War II

During World War II, Germany occupied the city from 7 September 1939 to 1 February 1945. The Einsatzkommando 16 entered the city to commit various crimes against Poles. Under German occupation, local people were subjected to arrests, expulsions, slave labor, deportations to concentration camps and executions, especially the Polish elites as part of the Intelligenzaktion.

A group of Polish railwaymen and policemen from Toruń was murdered by the German gendarmerie and Wehrmacht in Gąbin on 19–21 September 1939. Local Poles, including activists, teachers and priests, arrested in Toruń and the Toruń County from September 1939, were initially held in the pre-war prison, and after its overcrowding, from October 1939, the Germans imprisoned Poles in Fort VII of the Toruń Fortress. Only on October 17–19, 1939, the German police and Selbstschutz arrested 1,200 Poles in Toruń and the county.^[6] In early November 1939, the Germans carried out further mass arrests of Polish teachers, farmers and priests in Toruń and the county, who were then imprisoned in Fort VII.^[6] Imprisoned Poles were then either deported to concentration camps or murdered on the site.^[6] Large massacres of over 1,100 Poles from the city and region, including teachers, school principals, local officials, restaurateurs, shop owners, merchants, farmers, railwaymen, policemen, craftsmen, students, priests, workers, doctors, were carried out in the present-day district of Barbarka. Six mass graves were discovered after the war, in five of which the bodies of the victims were burnt, as the Germans tried to cover up the crime. Local teachers were also among Polish teachers murdered in the Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg, Mauthausen and Dachau concentration camps. Despite such circumstances, the Polish resistance movement was active in the city, and Toruń was the seat of one of the six main commands of the Union of Armed Struggle in occupied Poland (alongside Warsaw, Kraków, Poznań, Białystok and Lwów).

During the occupation, Germany established and operated the Stalag XX-A prisoner-of-war camp in the city with multiple forced labour subcamps in the region, in which Polish, British, French, Australian and Soviet POWs were held. From 1940 to 1943, in the northern part of the city there was a German transit camp for Poles expelled from Toruń and the surrounding area, which became infamous for inhuman sanitary conditions. Over 12,000 Poles passed through the camp, and around 1,000 died there, including about 400 children.^[7] From 1941 to 1945, a German forced labour camp was located in the city. In the spring of 1942, the Germans murdered 30 Polish scouts aged 13–16 in Fort VII.

While the city's population suffered many atrocities, as described, there were no battles or bombings to destroy its buildings. Thus, the city fortunately avoided damage during both World Wars, thanks to which it retained its historic architecture ranging from Gothic through Renaissance and Baroque to the 19th and 20th century styles.

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