Nidzica

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Nidzica

	(Coat of arms)


Basic Information
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Warmian-Masurian
Population	14 798 (2004)
City rights	1381
Latitude Longitude	53°21'N 20°25'E
Area	6,86 km²
Density	2157,1/km²
Area code	+48 89
Car plates	NNI
Twin towns	Bochum
Economy and Traffic
Administration
Mayor	Dariusz Szypulski
Municipal Website

Nidzica (former German: Neidenburg (help·info); formerly Nibork in Polish) is a town in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in Poland, between Olsztyn and Mława. It has a population of 14,798 (2004). It is the capital of Nidzica County.

1 History
2 Trivia
3 Famous residents
4 External links
5 References

[edit] History

The settlement was founded in 1355 by the Teutonic Knights and received town privileges in 1381 from Winrich von Kniprode. Although a member of the Prussian Confederation, it remained with the Order after the Second Peace of Toruń. It then became part of Ducal Prussia after the secularization of the Order's Prussian territories in 1525.

In 1656 Neidenburg was unsuccessfully besieged during the Northern Wars. The town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701. Half of Neidenburg's inhabitants died from plague from 1708-1711.

At the beginning of World War I in 1914, Imperial Russia invaded Imperial Germany and Neidenburg was heavily damaged by the czar's troops; the town was reconquered and rebuilt by the Germans after the Battle of Tannenberg in 1914.

Neidenburg was the seat of Landkreis Neidenburg in East Prussia until 1945; in that year the Red Army entered and occupied the town while pursuing the retreating Wehrmacht. While many if not most German civilians had fled the area, many of those who remained experienced atrocities at the hands of Soviet soldiers who found themselves on German soil for the first time. Soviet officer and (later dissident) Lev Kopelev later wrote how he was appalled by the acts of murder and looting he witnessed aginst those who remained. In the post-war settlement, Neidenburg fell within the area of East Prussia annexed by Poland and the remaining German population was expelled. The area has been henceforth known by its present official name, Nidzica.