Wiślica

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Wiślica is a village on the Nida River in Świętokrzyskie Voivodship in Poland. Population is 610 (1998).

[edit] History

Wiślica, though today only a little village, is one of the most ancient settlements in Poland, and has played an important role in Polish history. It existed as a fortified settlement (gród) in the 9th and 10th centuries. In the 11th and the beginning of the 12th century it was an important fortified town and a center of trade, as well as a residence of Piast kings and princes. From the turn of the 11th and in the 12th century it was the seat of a castellan. It was captured and destroyed multiple times; by Ruthenes in 1135, Mongols in 1241, and Czechs in 1305, among others.

Wiślica received its city charter before 1345 (possibly already in the 13th century). It was a place of frequent political gatherings (zjazdy, in 1347, 1587 and 1606). The Wiślica Statues of king Casimir III were proclaimed in the city.

From the 14th century Wiślica was the capital of a land (ziemia), from the 15th century it was a county (powiat) capital and the seat of a starosta. From the 17th century onward the city began to lose its importance, in part due to the heavy destruction it suffered during the Swedish invasion in the course of the Northern Wars. In 1795 it became part of Austria as a result of the Third Partition of Poland. From 1809 it was in the Duchy of Warsaw, then from 1815 in the Congress Kingdom under Russian rule, and again in independent Poland since 1918.

Wiślica lost its city charter in 1870, and it was again destroyed in the course of the First World War, in 1915. In 1939 during the Invasion of Poland heavy fighting occurred near the village. In the course of the German occupation that followed, Wiślica's Jewish community perished in the Holocaust.

[edit] Sights

The main church in the village, the gothic Basilica of the Birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary (pl. Bazylika Narodzenia Najświętszej Marii Panny), was funded by king Casimir III and built in the third quarter of the 14th century. The bell tower was added in 1397-1400 and the vicar's house (pl. Wikariat, also called Długosz house) in about 1460. The church was destroyed in the First World War, but was soon reconstructed, in years 1919-1926. In the course of this reconstruction foundations of two earlier romanesque churches were discovered under the Gothic church.