Torun

The city of Toruń (German Thorn, Latin Torun, civitas Torunensis) is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula river, with 204,300 inhabitants (1995). One of the capitals of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship (since 1999), previously capital of Torun Voivodship (1975-1998) and the Pomeranian Voivodship (1921-1939).

Toruń was the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473).

A university in Toruń was founded in 1945. (University of Torun website)

The medieval town of Toruń is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Table of contents

1 Architecture
2 History
3 Name of the city
4 External links

Architecture

Baroque facade of Dambski Palace (18th c.)
Part of medieval city walls

Gothic building from 15th c. with Guard Keep (13 c.), both rebuild in 19th c.
Partial view of Teutonic Knights' castle

History

Toruń (at that time called Thorun, and in the Culmer Land (Ziemia Chelminska) region of Province of Prussia), was an important medieval trade center, and part of the Hanseatic League. The Teutonic Knights built a castle there (1230-31), and the settlement acquired town rights in 1233, relocating from its original site to what is called today "Old Town" in 1236. In 1263, Franciscan monks settled in Torun, and they were followed in 1239 by Dominicans. In 1264 the neighboring New Town Thorn was founded. It was a separate town until 1454, when the old and new cities were amalgamated.

During the 14th century, Torun joined the Hanseatic League.

1440 Hanseatic cities Thorn, Elbing and Danzig formed the Prussian Confederation.
1454 the cities of Prussia rose up against the Teutonic Knights: Thorn accepted the sovereignty of the Polish crown in return for recognition of its city priviliges.
1466 The Thirteen Years' War and uprisings of Prussian cities end with the Second Treaty of Thorn, in which the Teutonic Order ceded sovereignty over western Prussia to Casimir IV of Poland.
With the Reformation the city became mostly Protestant.
1793 the city city became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia.
1807 the city became a part of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
1814 the city returned to the Kingdom of Prussia.
1871 the city became, along with the rest of Prussia, part of the German Empire.
1919 After World War I, under the Treaty of Versailles, the city returned to Polish sovereignty, becoming the capital of the province of Pomeranian Voivodship.
1939 After Germany's invasion of Westerplatte at Danzig (now Gdansk), the city was again annexed to Germany as part of the administrative province of Danzig-West Prussia.
1945 the city returns to Poland. After the borders were redrawn under the Potsdam Agreement reached at the end of World War II, Torun is now located close to the geographic centre of Poland.

Name of the city

Points of view diverge on the origin of Toruń's name.

Some claim it comes from Polish Tarn�w (there are many such cities in Poland, tarnina = kind of river plants), which was later Germanized into Thorn, and re-Polonized into Toruń. It may also be derived after the city of Toron, that was located in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusades. However, others claim that neither name Toruń nor Thorn has any etymological meaning. (reference: Professor Jan Miodek)

External links

1598 map of Prussia [[1]
Map of Prussia c.1630 [[1]
1620 Large Map of Prussia: Culm, Alt Thorn, Thorn in Culmigeria (Culmer Land) [[1]
20th century The official web page of Torun
21st century - participative, radically transparent social groups in Toruń
- independent media centre - email public archive - wiki
- Toruń Linux Users' Group wiki - email public archive

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