Inowrocław


Inowrocław is a city in north-central Poland with a total population of 72,561 in December 2019. It is situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, previously in the Bydgoszcz Voivodeship. It is one of the largest and historically most significant cities within Kuyavia.
Inowrocław is an industrial town located about southeast of Bydgoszcz known for its saltwater baths and salt mines. The town is the 5th largest agglomeration in its voivodeship, and is a major railway junction, where the west-east line crosses the Polish Coal Trunk-Line from Chorzów to Gdynia.

History

The town was first mentioned in 1185 as Novo Wladislaw, possibly in honor of Władysław I Herman or after the settlers from Włocławek. Many inhabitants of Włocławek settled in Inowrocław fleeing flooding. In 1236, the settlement was renamed Juveni Wladislawia. It was incorporated two years later by Casimir Conradowicz. In medieval Latin records, the town was recorded as Juniwladislavia. As a result of the fragmentation of Poland into smaller duchies, after 1230 Inowrocław was the capital of the Duchy of Kuyavia, and from 1267 to 1364 it was the capital of the Duchy of Inowrocław, before it became part and capital of Poland's Inowrocław Voivodeship, which covered northern Kuyavia along with the Dobrzyń Land. The voivodeship later also formed part of the larger Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. Inowrocław was a royal city of the Polish Crown. The town's development was aided by the discovery of extensive salt deposits in the vicinity during the 15th century.
It was an important city of late medieval Poland. In 1321, a Polish-Teutonic trial was held in Inowrocław regarding the Teutonic occupation of Gdańsk Pomerania, while the city itself was occupied by the Teutonic Knights from 1332 to 1337. King Casimir III the Great often stayed in the city, and in 1337 he held a meeting with King John of Bohemia in the local castle. A strong garrison was located in the city during the Polish-Teutonic War, and it was the main base of King Władysław II Jagiełło after his victory in the Battle of Grunwald.
Inowrocław was occupied and plundered by Swedish troops during the Deluge in the 1650s, and was annexed to the Kingdom of Prussia in February 1772 during the First Partition of Poland and added to the Netze District. Following the Franco-Prussian Treaty in July 1807, Inowrocław was transferred to the newly created Duchy of Warsaw, which was a client state of the French Empire. The city was a headquarters for Napoleon Bonaparte during his 1812 invasion of Russia. Following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Inowrocław was transferred back to Prussia as part of the Grand Duchy of Posen. Initially, until 1838 the mayors were still Poles, then Germans. Despite Germanisation attempts, the city was an important center of the Polish resistance during the partitions. It flourished after the establishment of a railway junction in 1872 and a spa in 1875. The city and the region were given the more Germanized name Hohensalza on December 5, 1904. It was electrified in 1908.

Interbellum

After the end of World War I, in November 1918, Poland regained independence and Polish insurgents re-captured the city in January 1919. Restoration to the re-established sovereign Polish state was confirmed in the Treaty of Versailles, and the historic name Inowrocław was restored. High unemployment resulting from trade embargoes led to violent confrontations between workers and the police in 1926 and hunger strikes killed 20 in 1930. Inowrocław was part of Poznań Voivodeship until 1925, when it became an independent urban district. This district was briefly assigned to Great Pomerania during the reform of Polish regional administration just before World War II.

World War II

Captured by the German 4th Army during the invasion of Poland on September 11, 1939, Inowrocław was again renamed Hohensalza and initially administered under the military district of Posen before being incorporated into Nazi Germany first as part of the Reichsgau of Posen and then as part of Reichsgau Wartheland.
The Einsatzgruppe IV entered the city on September 12-15, 1939, to commit various atrocities against Poles. Poles arrested during the Intelligenzaktion were held in the local prison and in a transit camp, and afterwards mostly murdered in the prison or in the nearby Gniewkowo forest, while some were deported to Nazi concentration camps. In a large massacre, on the night of October 22-23, 1939, the Germans murdered 56 Poles in the prison, including numerous teachers. Families of the victims were expelled, alike local Polish activists and craftsmen, whose workshops were handed over to German colonists in accordance to the Nazi Lebensraum policy. In total, the Germans expelled a few thousand Poles from the city, including over 2,900 already in 1939.
Between 1940 and 1945, Hohensalza was used as a resettlement camp for Poles and an internment camp for Soviet, French, and British POWs.

Recent period

Inowrocław returned to Poland and its original name following the arrival of the Soviet Red Army on January 21, 1945. The last German air raid occurred on April 4, 1945, when a single aircraft dropped four fragmentation bombs and fired on travelers waiting at the Inowrocław train platform. Between 1950 and 1998, the town was part of Bydgoszcz Voivodeship, but the 1999 reforms left it part of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship.

Population

The most popular sports in the city are basketball and football. Notable teams: