Country Poland Established 1198 Time zone CET (UTC+1) Population 48,136 (2006) Local time Sunday 12:23 PM | County Starogard Town rights 1348 Area 25.27 km² Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship | |
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Gmina Starogard Gdański (urban gmina) Weather 8°C, Wind N at 11 km/h, 49% Humidity | ||
Starogard Gdański [staˈrɔɡard ˈɡdaɲskʲi] (meaning approximately "the old stronghold"; Kashubian/Pomeranian: Starogarda; German: Preußisch Stargard) is a town in Eastern Pomerania in northwestern Poland with 48,328 inhabitants (2004).
Contents
- Map of Starogard GdaC584ski Poland
- Geographical location
- Etymology
- History
- Number of inhabitants by year
- Major corporations
- Education
- Sports
- Famous residents
- Partnership towns
- References
Map of Starogard Gda%C5%84ski, Poland
Starogard has been the capital of Starogard County in Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, but was previously a town in Gdańsk Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998. Car registration numbers start with GST.
Starogard is the capital and second biggest city (after Tczew) of the region called Kociewie and is populated by Kocievians.
Geographical location
Starogard Gdański is located in Pomerania on the small river Wierzyca, about 21 kilometres (13 miles) south-west of Tczew, 40 km (25 mi) south of Gdańsk and 67 km (42 mi) north-east of Chojnice. It is 50 km (31 mi) from the Tricity (Polish: Trójmiasto) agglomeration on the coast of Gdańsk Bay.
Etymology
The name Starogard means "old city" in the Pomeranian language. Gdański is appended in the 20th century to the name to differentiate it from other places named Starogard. The German name Preußisch Stargard (Prussian Stargard) is similarly used to disambiguate from other places named Stargard. (See Stargard (disambiguation)).
History
Archeological evidence indicates remnants of a neolithic settlement from four to five thousand years ago.
The territories of the settlement in Pomeralia belonged to a Pomeranian duchy which came under Polish rule during the 10th century and which acquired independence in 1227. Starogrod (as Starigrod) was first mentioned in 1198 when Duke Grzymisław II of Pomerania granted the settlement to the Knights Hospitaller. The Slavic name Stargarde was mentioned in 1269. Together with the rest of Gdańsk Pomerania it came under the rule of the Teutonic Knights during the 1308 Teutonic takeover of Danzig (Gdańsk). In 1348 the town received city rights under Kulm Law by Grandmaster Heinrich Dusemer.
Since March 31, 1440 Starogard was a member of the Prussian Confederation. It took an active part in the 1454 uprising against the Teutonic Order that led to the Thirteen Years' War (1454–66). According to the peace treaty signed in Toruń in 1466, the city became part of the province of Royal Prussia part of the Kingdom of Poland. It remained under Polish rule until the first partition of Poland in 1772, when it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia.
Until 1920 Stargard belonged to the administrative district of Regierungsbezirk Danzig in the Province of West Prussia.
After World War I Stargard was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic.
After German invasion of Poland, Pomeralia was annexed at the beginning of World War II by the Nazi Germany. Between 1939-1945 Stargard was part of Regierungsbezirk Danzig in the new province of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia.
Beginning in September 1939 in nearby Szpęgawski Forest (north-east of the town) Germans killed in mass executions about 7000 Poles, among them 1680 Kocborowo (Konradstein) and Świecie psychiatric hospitals patients. About 500 handicapped children were killed in the hospital, in Action T4. 2,842 patients died between 1940-1944.
Number of inhabitants by year
Note that the above table is based on primary, possibly biased, sources.