Pyrzyce

Pyrzyce [pɨˈʐɨt​͡sɛ] (German: Pyritz, Kashubian: Pirzëce), is a town in Pomerania, north-western Poland, with 13,331 inhabitants (2007)

Capital of the Pyrzyce County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Szczecin Voivodeship (1975–1998).

History

An anonymous medieval document of about 850, called Bavarian Geographer, mentions the tribe of Prissani having 70 strongholds (Prissani civitates LXX). In the early 12th century, the town was part of the realm of Wartislaw I, Duke of Pomerania, which evolved into the Duchy of Pomerania.

The settlement was first mentioned in 1124 by bishop Otto von Bamberg, who baptized the first Pomeranians here.^[1] Throughout the German Ostsiedlung the oldest church was built in 1250, an Augustinian cloister in 1256 and a monastery of the Franciscan order in 1281.

In 1263 the town received Magdeburg law. By the Contract of Pyritz of March 26, 1493 the Dukes of Pomerania recognized the right of succession of the House of Brandenburg. A large fire destroyed almost the whole town in 1496. Pyritz was the first town in Pomerania to implement the Lutheran Reformation in 1524.^[2]

In 1634, during the Thirty Years' War, it was again largely destroyed by a conflagration. After the death of the last Pomeranian Duke in 1637 and by the Treaty of Westphalia the town became part of the Brandenburg-Prussian province of Pomerania following the Peace of Westphalia (1648) and the Treaty of Stettin (1653), along within the rest of Farther Pomerania.

In 1818, the town became the seat of the district administration (Kreis Pyritz) and was connected to the railway system in 1882. As part of Prussia the town was located in unified Germany of 1871.

At the end of World War II Soviet Red Army conquered the town throughout the Pomeranian Offensive. Following the post-war boundary changes, Pyritz was renamed Pyrzyce and became Polish. Its German population was expelled and the town was populated with Poles, many themselves expellees from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

Number of inhabitants in years

1875: 7.442
1880: 8.123
1890: 8.247 (79 Catholics, 236 Jews)
1925: 9.085
1933: 10.084 (9739 Lutherans, 178 Catholic, 3 other Chistians, 87 Jews)
1939: 11.287 (10.515 Lutherans, 270 Catholics, 8 other Christians, 27 Jews)^[2]
1960: 5.500
1970: 8.800
1975: 10.800
1980: 11.600
2000: 13.200

Famous people

• Danuta Bartoszek
• Karl Gützlaff (1803–1851), missionary
• Otto Hintze (1861–1940), historian
• Margarete Neumann (1917–2002), author

Twin towns

• Bad Sülze, Germany
• Korbach, Germany
• Hörby, Sweden
• Vysoké Mýto, Czech Republic
• Goleniów, Poland
• Złocieniec, Poland

External links

• Official city website (Polish)
• Satellite photo from Google Maps

References