Our town
:: 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 (grammar school): our Liceum Ogólnokształcące im. St. Staszica. It isn't a vocational school. It prepares students to go to unniversities. There are about 350 students sp most of us 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 Łąka (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 Łąka 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 was to be in Poland, but Germany 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.
