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:: Our Town ::
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Wednesday 08 September 2010
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:: General Info ::
Trzcianka is a small town, that has about 17 000 inhabitants. It is in wielkopolskie region, 20 kilometres from Piła, 90 kilometres from Poznań and 200 km from Berlin. We have a few secondary schools but there is only one liceum (high school or grammar school): our Liceum Ogólnokształc±ce im. St. Staszica (comprehensive). It isn't a vocational school. It prepares students to go to unniversities. There are about 350 students. So it isn't very big, most students know each other and teachers are able to get to know most of us
:: History ::
The roots of our town go back to the Middle Ages.
In the first half of the thirteenth century the
prince of Wielkopolska gave these grounds to
Czarnkowski's family and in a document appeared
the first name of Trzcianka: Rozdróżka (but then
it was a small village which was situated by the
cross-roads of "highways" to several bigger
villages and this name came just from that).
These areas were trading with Wielkopolska,
Pomerania and Branderburgia in wood, pitch, ash,
etc. On the turn of 16th century, there were
religious' wars in Europe, but in Poland was
freedom of religious, so people (especially
German and Dutch) were coming here. They also
brought the knowledge of weaving. Natural
conditions were conducive to sheep-farming. And
soon Trzciana Ł±ka (because these grounds were
overgrown with reed, which is "trzciana" in
Polish, and that's why the name had been changed
after some time) becamwe one of the biggest
weaving centres in Poland.
On 3rd March 1731 Polish king, August II Sas,
granted Trzciana Ł±ka civic rights and changed
its name to Trzcianka. In 1738 Stanisław
Poniatowski (father of our future king Stanisław
August) bought this town. His armorial
bearings "ciołek" (young bull) became the crest
of Trzcianka. He also fixed her final name.
Thirty-four years later Prussia, Austria and
Russia partitioned Poland and Trzcianka became
the part of the German section. Since then our
town and its industry had been losing its
importance. Trzcianka had also a Napoleonic
episode: Napoleon's soldiers walked through our
city in the direction of Toruń and Gdańsk. In
1807 Bonaparte gave these areas to the marshal of
France µ Luis Alexander Berthier. There is also
a legend, which says, that Napoleon had spent one
night in this town. But in 1815 Trzcianka joined
the German state again. Although our industry
(still weaving) developed. However since half of
nineteenth century it had started to deteriorate.
One of the reason was the affluence of cheap wool
from Australia and cotton from America. But at
the same time wood industry increased slowly.
On these areas met three religious:
evangelical, Catholic and Judaic. The largest was
the protestant community. They had their church
and several societies. And the same with other
communities. Besides the Jews had their
library.
After World War I Trzcianka had to be in
Poland, but German carried original decision of
Versailles' treaty for their own interest.
Finally, in 1945, when the Soviet army marched in
this region it was possible for Trzcianka to join
Poland again after 173 years of the German rule.
A.W.
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