The city of Toruń (Kashubian/Pomeranian: Torń; Latin Torun, civitas Torunensis, German Thorn) 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, based on the people of University of Wilno. (University of Torun website). It was one of the most respected universities in Poland.

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

The city of Torun creates a bipolar aglomeration Bydgoszcz-Torun with the city of Bydgoszcz, only 30 km away. Those 2 cities are integrating gradually. in 2003 Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz joined Torun University.

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 was a small stronghold in Chelmno Land (Ziemia Chelminska, Culmland), a western part of Mazovia. in 1266 it was awarded by the duke Konrad of Mazovia as a fief to the Teutonic Knights to be a safeguard against the heathen Prussians.

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. The city soon became an important medieval trade center, and a member of the Hanseatic League. In 1263, Franciscan monks settled in Torun, and they were followed in 1239 by Dominicans. In 1264 the neighboring Torun New Town 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 The Prussian nobility and cities led by Toruń, Elblag and Gdansk formed the Prussian Confederation.
• 1454 the cities of Prussia rose up against the Teutonic Knights: Torun 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 in 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.

Some claim it comes from Polish Tarnów (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