GNIEZNO

'Gniezno' (pronounced: ) is a town in central-western Poland, some 50 km east of Poznań, inhabited by about 73,000 people. Situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Poznań Voivodeship. It is the administrative capital of the Gniezno County (powiat).

Contents

History

Legend of Lech, Czech and Rus

Cradle of the Polish state

Gniezno meeting 1000

Royal coronation site

Regional site of Greater Poland

Archbishops of Gniezno

Royal coronations in Gniezno cathedral

Historical population

Education

Arts and culture

Twin towns

See also

External links

History

There are archaeological traces of human settlement since the late Paleolithic. Early Slavonic settlements are on the Lech Hill and the Maiden Hill are dated to 8th century and the ducal stronghold was founded just before AD 800 on the Lech Hill, and surrounded with some fortified suburbs and open settlements.

Legend of Lech, Czech and Rus

According to the Polish version of legends: ''three brothers Lech, Czech and Rus were exploring the wilderness to find a place to settle. Suddenly they saw a hill with an old oak and an eagle on top. Lech said: this white eagle I will adopt as an emblem of my people, and around this oak I will build my stronghold, and because of the eagle nest [Polish: ''gniazdo''] I will call it Gniezdno [modern: Gniezno]. The other brothers went further on to find a place for their people. Czech went to the South'' (to found the Czech Lands) ''and Rus went to the East'' (to create Russia and Ukraine).

Cradle of the Polish state

In 10th century Gniezno became one of the main towns of the early Piast dynasty, founders of Polish state.

Gniezno meeting 1000

It is here that the Congress of Gniezno took place in the year 1000 AD, during which Boleslaus I the Brave (), duke of Poland, received Emperor Otto III, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. The emperor and the duke celebrated the foundation of the Polish ecclesiastical province (archbishopric) in Gniezno, with newly established bishopric in Kołobrzeg for Pomerania; Wrocław for Silesia; Kraków for Little Poland and later also already existing since 968 bishopric in Poznań for western Greater Poland. In 1024 Boleslaus I crowned himself the king of Poland (according to other version, this occurred in 1000 or 1025).

Royal coronation site

The 10th century Gniezno cathedral witnessed royal coronations of Boleslaus I the Brave in 1024, his son Mieszko II Lambert in 1025. The cities of Gniezno and nearby Poznań were captured, plundered and destroyed in 1038 by the Bohemian duke Bretislav I, which pushed the next Polish rulers to move the Polish capital to Kraków. The archiepiscopal cathedral was reconstucted by the next ruler Boleslaus II of Poland who was crowned king here in 1076.
In the next centuries Gniezno evolved as a regional seat of the eastern part of Greater Poland, and in 1238 municipal autonomy was granted by the duke Władysław Odonic. Gniezno was again the coronation site in 1295 and 1300.

Regional site of Greater Poland

The city was destroyed again by the Teutonic Knights invasion in 1331, and after an administrative reform became a county within the Kalisz Voivodeship (since 14th century till 1768). Gniezno was hit by heavy fires in 1515, 1613, was destroyed during the Swedish invasion wars of the 17th-18th centuries and by a plague of 1708-1710. All this caused depopulation and economic decline, but the city was soon revived during the 18th century to become the Gniezno voivodship in 1768.

Archbishops of Gniezno

Main articles: Archbishop of Gniezno

Gniezno's Roman Catholic archbishop is traditionally the Primate of Poland (''Prymas Polski''). After the partitions of Poland the see was often combined with others, first with Poznań and then with Warsaw. In 1992 Pope John Paul II reorganized the Polish hierarchy and the city once again had a separate bishop. Cardinal Józef Glemp, who had been archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw and retained Warsaw, was designated to remain Primate until his retirement, but afterward the Archbishop of Gniezno, at present Henryk Muszyński, would again be Primate of Poland.

Royal coronations in Gniezno cathedral

★ 25 December 1024 - Boleslaus I the Brave

★ 25 December 1025 - Mieszko II Lambert and his wife Richensa of Lotharingia

★ 25 December 1076 - Boleslaus the Generous and his wife Wyszesława of Kiev

★ 26 June 1295 - Przemysl II and his wife Margaret of Brandenburg

★ August 1300 - Wenceslaus II of Bohemia

Historical population

★ 1912: 25,339 inhabitants

★ 1980: 62,400 inhabitants

★ 1990: 70,400 inhabitants

★ 1995: 71,000 inhabitants

Education

★ Collegium Europaeum Gnesnense (part of Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan)

★ The Gniezno School of Humanism and Management - Millennium (''Gnieźnieńska Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczno-Menedżerska Millennium'')

★ The Archbishop's Ecclesiastical Seminary (''Arcybiskupie Seminarium Duchowne'')

Arts and culture

★ Aleksander Fredro Theatre (Teatr im. A. Fredry)

★ Museum of the Polish State Origins (Muzeum Początków Państwa Polskiego)

Twin towns

Anagni, Esztergom, Falkenberg, Saint-Malo, Speyer, Radviliškis, Roskilde, Uman, Veendam

See also

★ Gniezno Cathedral

★ History of Poland

★ Adalbert of Prague

★ Royal coronations in Gniezno cathedral

★ Gniezno Doors

External links

★ Gniezno homepage (English and German version also available), The official site of the Gniezno City's Administration, from which much of the above was taken and adapted.

★ Gniezno Poviat The official site of the Gniezno District, which comprises 9 "gmina".

★ Urząd Gminy Gniezno The official site of the Gniezno Gmina "community" administration.