| Skoczów | |||
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| Top: Papal Cross on Kaplicówka Hill. Centre left: Pegasus statue in front of St Peter and Paul's Church. Centre right: Town Hall. Bottom: Main Square | |||
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Skoczów
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Poland | ||
| Voivodeship | Silesian | ||
| County | Cieszyn | ||
| Gmina | Skoczów | ||
| Founded | 14th century | ||
| City rights | 1327 | ||
| Government | |||
| • Mayor | Janina Żagan | ||
| Area | |||
| • Total | 9.79 km2 (3.8 sq mi) | ||
| Population (2006) | |||
| • Total | 14,641 | ||
| • Density | 1,495.5/km2 (3,873.3/sq mi) | ||
| Time zone | CET (UTC+1) | ||
| • Summer (DST) | CEST (UTC+2) | ||
| Postal code | 43-430 | ||
| Car plates | SCI | ||
| Website | http://www.um.skoczow.pl | ||
Skoczów [ˈskɔt͡ʂuf] ( listen) (German: Skotschau, Czech: Skočov) is a town and the seat of Gmina Skoczów in Cieszyn County, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland with 14,783 inhabitants (2004). It lies in the historical region of Cieszyn Silesia.
The town is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since 1999, and was previously a part of the Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998.
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Skoczów is the oldest town in the area of the upper Vistula river. The very first settlement had been established in a place called grodzisko ("gord") about 2 km (1.24 mi) south-east of the town centre. The gord was set up around the 5th century, and was inhabited until the 9th century. Settlement was situated at first on a naturally defensive hill over the valley of the river Bładnica. Later on, the settlement was surrounded by an earth bank and moat. The settlement was destroyed in the end of the 9th century by Great Moravian Prince Svatopluk II and was not rebuilt again.
The current location of the town was set during the reign of Mieszko I (1290–1315) because of his effort in the newly established Duchy of Cieszyn. But the first written record of the town's name dates back to 1232.[1] The next mention of it is from 1327 when Duke Casimir I became a vassal of the King of Bohemia. At that time the wooden castle had been built. In the beginning Skoczów had been mainly an agricultural, craft and trade settlement. In 1470 Skoczów was destroyed by fire, which destroyed all chartered privileges and other documents. The same year, the Duke of Cieszyn renewed and extended all civic privileges. A school and hospital with a chapel are recorded in a document from 1482.
According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 3,744 inhabitants, 3,705 of whom had permanent residence there. The census asked people their native language, and results show that 1,803 (48.6%) were German-speaking and 1,794 (48.4%) were Polish-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish. Most of them thus declared the German language as their native. The dominant religious groups were Roman Catholics with 2,443 (65.2%), followed by Protestants with 1,042 (27.8%) and the Jews with 247 (6.6%).[2]
Kaplicówka Hill which overlooks the town is dominated by a chapel and a large cross. Pope John Paul II visited Skoczów in 1995, holding a mass attended by 200,000 people. The cross on Kaplicówka was erected to commemorate the visit.
The town holds a market on Thursdays, situated next to the Vistula river.
Skoczów is twinned with:
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