Lidzbark Warmiński

Lidzbark Warmiński (Polish IPA pronunciation: ['liʣbarg var'miɲski] (help·info); until 1946:German: Heilsberg (help·info)) is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland. It is the capital of Lidzbark County.

[edit] History

The town was originally an Old Prussian settlement known as Lecbarg until being conquered in 1240 by the Teutonic Knights, who called it Heilsberg. In 1306 it became the seat for the Bishopric of Warmia and remained the Prince-Bishop's seat for 500 years. In 1309 the settlement received town privileges. After the Second Peace of Toruń in 1466, the town became part of the Polish province of Royal Prussia.

Nicolaus Copernicus lived at the castle for several years, it is believed he wrote part of his De revolutionibus orbium coelestium there.

In the winter of 1703-04 the town was the residence of King Charles XII of Sweden during the Great Northern War.

Bishop's castle

Lidzbark, then known as Heilsberg, was annexed with the rest of Warmia by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772. In 1807 a battle took place near the town between the French under Murat and Soult and the Russians and Prussians under Bennigsen.

From 1933-45 Heilsberg was the site of the large radio station Transmitter Heilsberg. The town was heavily damaged during its conquest by the Soviet Red Army during World War II in 1945. Afterwards, the town was ceded to Poland after 173 years of Prussian and German rule and its ethnic German population was expelled to the west.