Poznań, today Poland's fifth largest city, is also one of the country's oldest cities, and was an important political and religious center in the early Polish state of the 10th century. Poznań Cathedral is the oldest church in the country, containing the tombs of the first Polish rulers, Duke Mieszko I and King Bolesław I Chrobry.
Although the centre of national political power moved to Kraków in the 11th century, and later to Warsaw, Poznań remained an important regional center, being the chief city of the Greater Poland (Wielkopolska) region. It came under Prussian (later German) rule for most of the period from 1793 to 1918, during which it expanded significantly, and was also heavily fortified. The city resumed its role as a Polish voivodeship capital in the Second Polish Republic, and later, following the 1939–1945 Nazi German occupation, in the communist Polish People's Republic. Since 1999 Poznań has been the capital of Greater Poland Voivodeship.
Early times and Piast Poland (to 1138)
The first settlements in and near-by what is now Poznań can be traced to the late period of the Stone Age. Later various cultures developed there in the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Famous are the originally Bronze Age burial mounds at Łęki Małe, built between 2150 BC and 1800 BCE during the Únětice Culture. By the mid 20th century, nine mounds were still visible, and originally there were probably 14 mounds.
A recent study, based on a multi-proxy approach using cores from Lake Wonieść, has demonstrated the complex settlement history with changing intensities in the Poznań region throughout prehistory. Around 5250 BCE, people attributed to the Linear Pottery Culture settled in the areas of chernozem soil. A significant opening of the landscape took place during the Funnel Beaker Period from 3800 BCE. There are several boom and bust phases that correspond to archaeological complexes. For example, a boom phase appears in the records around 2150 BCE, when Early Bronze Age settlements began to appear and sites such as Bruszczewo and Łęki Małe were initiated. A bust phase appears around 1690-1640 BC, when the huge Bruszczewo settlement was abandoned.
Poznań began as a stronghold built in the 8th or 9th century AD between branches of the Warta and Cybina rivers, on what is now called Ostrów Tumski ("Cathedral Island"). Various other settlements sprang up nearby on the islands and on both banks of the Warta. In the 10th century the tribe inhabiting the region, the Polans, became dominant over other tribes in most of the area of today's Poland. Consequently, this early Polish state, ruled by Duke Mieszko I and his successors in the Piast dynasty, was centred politically on Poznań and the neighbouring Polan strongholds, particularly Gniezno and Giecz. Archaeological research shows that in the late 10th century Poznań had a ducal palace (where the Church of Our Lady now stands, opposite the cathedral), with a chapel, possibly built for Mieszko's Christian wife Dobrawa. The ceremony by which Mieszko converted to Christianity in 966, known as the Baptism of Poland, is likely to have taken place at Poznań.
Following the conversion, in 968 Poland received its first missionary bishop, Jordan, who is believed to have used Poznań as his seat. Construction began of Poznań's cathedral. This was originally built in an early Romanesque style, and as Poland's first cathedral had St. Peter as its patron. The first rulers of Piast Poland – Mieszko I, Bolesław I and Mieszko II – are buried beneath the cathedral.
Gniezno was created an archbishopric at the Congress of Gniezno in 1000, by agreement between Bolesław I and Holy Roman Emperor Otto III. However Jordan's successor Unger remained as Bishop of Poznań independent of Gniezno, although it is not clear whether this continued to be a missionary bishopric subordinate to the Pope, or was attached to the Bishopric of Magdeburg.
With Mieszko II's death in 1034, which probably occurred in Poznań (and may have been the result of an aristocratic plot), the country entered a period of anarchy and pagan reaction, which caused much devastation in the region. In 1038 Bretislaus I, Duke of Bohemia invaded, sacking and destroying Poznań and Gniezno. When Poland's unity was restored by Casimir the Restorer in 1039, the capital was moved to Kraków, which had been relatively undamaged by the troubles. Poznań and Gniezno were rebuilt, and in spite of the decline in the region's political importance, Poznań remained an important economic center.
In the period of fragmentation of Poland (1138–1320)
Under the testament of Bolesław III, in 1138 Poland was divided into separate duchies under the late king's sons. Poznań and its surrounding region (though without Gniezno and Kalisz) became the domain of Mieszko III the Old, the first of the Dukes of Greater Poland. The period saw much turbulence and fighting among the dukes, with the duchies and their subdivisions (such as the duchies of Poznań, Gniezno and Kalisz) frequently changing hands. Mieszko was High Duke of all Poland at various times between 1173 and his death in 1202, by which time he had also gained control of Gniezno and Kalisz, thus making Poznań a centre of power in a region covering the whole of Greater Poland. However the instability would continue throughout the 13th century.
Poznań at this time was still essentially the stronghold on the cathedral island. However, by the end of the 12th century various trade and craft settlements had developed around it, including those of St. Gotard, St. Martin and St. Adalbert (Wojciech) on the left bank of the Warta river, and Śródka on the right bank. The name Śródka derived from the Wednesday markets which were held there (środa is Polish for "Wednesday"). Beyond Śródka was the Church of St. John (formerly of St. Michael), and beyond that a settlement which would become known as Komandoria (after the commander of the Knights Hospitallers, to whom the church was granted in 1187).
The main arena of development, though, was the left bank. In about 1249, Duke Przemysł I began constructing a residence and castle on what is now called Przemysł Hill – this would become the Royal Castle. Przemysł also acquired the settlement of St. Gotard from the bishopric, in exchange for that of St. Adalbert, with the intention of founding a town there. In 1253 a charter was given by Przemysł (and his brother Bolesław the Pious) for the founding of a town under Magdeburg law. The charter was issued to Thomas of Gubin, who in the following years brought many German settlers to aid in the building. This city covered the area of Poznań's present-day Old Town neighbourhood, centred on the Market Square (now Stary Rynek). Under Duke Przemysł II, the castle was strengthened and the new city surrounded with a wall, integrated with the castle (which stood at the eastern end of the town).
Przemysł II was crowned king of Poland in 1295, and thus the castle became a royal residence. However, after the king's murder in Rogoźno the following year, the conflict and instability resumed. In 1314 Poznań finally came under the control of Władysław I the Elbow-high, who was crowned king of a reunited Poland in 1320, bringing the period of fragmentation to an end.
In Poland and the Commonwealth (1320–1793)
In the reunited Poland (and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) Poznań became the seat of a voivodeship, although within the Greater Poland region Kalisz was initially of greater importance, lying on the route from Silesia to Toruń and Gdańsk. In 1331 Poznań withstood a siege by forces of John of Bohemia. With the start of the Jagiellonian period Poznań began to grow in importance, as it lay on the trading route from Lithuania and Ruthenia to western Europe. King Władysław II Jagiełło granted and confirmed numerous privileges on the city, which continued to grow in importance under his successors. Most of the surrounding settlements on the left-bank of the Warta belonged to the city, while the cathedral island (Ostrów Tumski) and the right bank formed the bishop's possessions. Separate town rights were bestowed on Ostrów Tumski sometime before 1335, Śródka in 1425 (its western end, Ostrówek, would form a separate town), and Chwaliszewo (then a separate island) in 1444.
The city also suffered from frequent epidemics of disease, which slowed the growth of the population. It also suffered a number of fires (particularly in 1386, 1447, 1459, 1464, 1536 and 1590), which increased the popularity of brick over wood as a building material. Floods were another frequent problem. The city's fortifications were strengthened from 1431 onwards, with the addition of wall towers, a tall observation tower and a second line of walls, a moat being created between the two lines.
The city had a significant Jewish community, which had probably existed since the mid 13th century, although the first documentary record of them dates from 1367, by which time Poznań already had a synagogue. The Jewish quarter was in the north-east of the walled city, around the street called ulica Żydowska ("Jewish Street"), known as ul. Tkacka ("Weavers' Street") before the 15th century.
The Lubrański Academy was founded in Poznań in 1519, Poland's second institution of higher education after the Jagiellonian University, although it did not have the right to award academic degrees.
In 1536 the city suffered a major fire. The town hall was one of the buildings affected; the damage led to a major redesign and reconstruction of the building in 1550–1560, under the direction of Giovanni Battista di Quadro.
In 1549 it is recorded that there were 550 houses belonging to the townspeople, 86 belonging to Jews, about 30 belonging to nobles and a similar number belonging to clergy. Many craftsmen by that time had moved to the settlements outside the city walls, leading to an increase in the number of residential buildings in the city. However many of the nobles' and clergy's possessions, both within and outside the walls, had the status of jurydyka, which placed them outside the control of the city and thus reduced the city's revenues and power. The Jewish quarter was also self-governing. It is estimated that the conurbation's population in this period was approximately 20,000, of which 8,000 lived within the city walls. However the population was subject to large fluctuations due to fires, floods and outbreaks of disease.
At the end of the 16th century Poznań was a major centre for the fur and leather trade, particularly in skins coming from Lithuania and Russia.
During the free election period in Poland, Poznań, as one of the most influential cities of the state, enjoyed voting rights.
Attempts were made to introduce Protestantism to the city in the second half of the 16th century, but this involved mainly the nobility, the bulk of the population remaining Roman Catholic. The largest Protestant congregation, the German-speaking Lutherans, numbered 2,300 to 2,400 at the end of the century, of whom only about 600 lived within the city walls. The Catholic Church's Counter-Reformation efforts included the founding of a Jesuits' College in the city in 1571, under the rectorship of Jakub Wujek. This institution gained the right to award academic degrees in 1611, and existed until the abolition of the order and merger with the Lubrański Academy in 1780.