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Toruń
Columbia Encyclopedia entry: Toruń
Toruńtô'roonyə, Ger. Thorn, city (1993 est. pop. 201,700), capital (with Bydgoszcz) of Kujawsko-Pomorskie prov., N central Poland, on the Vistula River. It is a river port and a railway junction. The major industries produce precision instruments, electrical equipment, textiles, and fertilizers. It grew around a castle founded in 1231 by the Teutonic Knights. A flourishing trade center, it was a member of the Hanseatic League (14th–16th cent.). Toruń's importance made it an object of dispute between Poland and the Teutonic Knights. The First Peace of Toruń (1411) resulted in a short-lived settlement of the struggle. When Toruń recognized the Polish crown in 1454, it was taken and burned by the Knights. The ensuing war between Poland and the Knights ended with the Second Peace of Toruń (1466), by which Poland gained Toruń, extensive Prussian territories, access to the sea, and suzerainty over the area left to the Knights. A synod (1595) of Polish and Lithuanian Protestants and a synod (1645) of Polish Protestants and Catholics (known as the Colloquium Charitativum) were held in the city. In the early 17th cent. Toruń's population (30,000) was equal to that of Warsaw, but the city suffered heavily in the Swedish invasion. A religious riot there (1724) caused Russia and Prussia to guarantee the rights of religious minorities in Poland. The city passed to Prussia in 1793 and again in 1815, after its occupation by Napoleon I. It reverted to Poland in 1919. Toruń has preserved several fine Gothic buildings, the most notable of which are the churches of St. John (13th–14th cent.), St. James (14th cent.), and the Virgin (14th cent.). It was the birthplace of Copernicus; its university (founded 1945) bears his name.

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Wikipedia search results for: Toruń
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Toruń is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula River, with population over 207,190 as of 2006, making it the second-largest city of Kujawy-Pomerania Province, after Bydgoszcz. The medieval old town of Toruń is the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus. In 1997 it was added to UNESCO's World Heritage List as a World Heritage Site. Previously it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship and the Pomeranian Voivodeship. Since 1999, Toruń has been a seat of the self-government of the Kujawy-Pomerania Province and, as such, is one of its two capitals. The cities and neighboring counties form the Bydgoszcz-Toruń bipolar metropolitan area. In September 2004,...more »
Columbia Encyclopedia search results: Toruń
Results 1 - 10  of 10
  • Bydgoszcz

    Bydgoszcz, Ger. Bromberg, city (1994 est. pop. 384,000), capital (with Toruń) of Kujawsko-Pomorskie prov., N central Poland, on the Brda River, a tributary of the Vistula. One of Poland's majo...

  • Vistula

    Vistula, Pol. Wisła, longest river and principal waterway of Poland, c.665 mi (1,070 km) long. It rises in the West Beskid range of the Carpathians, S Poland, and flows NE past Kraków, NW past...

  • Ladislaus II, king of Poland

    Ladislaus II or Ladislaus Jagiello, 1350?–1434, king of Poland (1386–1434), grand duke of Lithuania (1378–1401), founder of the Jagiello dynasty. Leaguing with Poland against the menacing Teut...

  • Casimir IV

    Casimir IV, 1427–92, king of Poland (1447–92). He became (1440) ruler of Lithuania and in 1447 succeeded his brother Ladislaus III as king of Poland. He united the two nations more closely by ...

  • Polish Corridor

    Polish Corridor, strip of German territory awarded to newly independent Poland by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The strip, 20 to 70 mi (32–112 km) wide, gave Poland access to the Baltic Se...

  • Sigismund I

    Sigismund I, 1467–1548, king of Poland (1506–48), son of Casimir IV. Elected to succeed his brother, Alexander I, Sigismund faced the problem of consolidating his domestic power in order succe...

  • Pomerania

    Pomerania, region of N central Europe, extending along the Baltic Sea from a line W of Stralsund, Germany, to the Vistula River in Poland. From 1919 to 1939, Pomerania was divided among German...

  • East Prussia

    East Prussia, Ger. Ostpreussen, former province of Prussia, extreme NE Germany. The region of East Prussia has low rolling hills that are heavily wooded, and it is dotted by many lakes (especi...

  • Teutonic Knights

    Teutonic Knights or Teutonic Order, German military religious order founded (1190–91) during the siege of Acre in the Third Crusade. It was originally known as the Order of the Knights of the ...

  • Poland

    Poland, Pol. Polska, officially Republic of Poland, republic (2005 est. pop. 38,635,000), 120,725 sq mi (312,677 sq km), central Europe. It borders on Germany in the west, on the Baltic Sea an...

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