OSTRÓW WIELKOPOLSKI
Ostrów Wielkopolski is a country town situated on the Ołobok river, in the Kalisz Upland. Ostrów Wielkopolski is a transport interchange significant countrywide. It was there that the jazz pianist and composer Krzysztof Komeda-Trzciński (1931–1969) took his mature (GCSE-level) exams; with his individualistic style, he has marked a distinctive trace in the history of jazz music.
History
The name Ostrów Wielkopolski is a combination of Old-Polish ostrów island or isle, and the adjective Wielkopolski meaning ‘of Wielkopolska’. This urban hub is a transport interchange significant countrywide. In spite of its holding municipal rights, Ostrów was not developing until 18th century, mainly remaining a husbandry centre. The burghers eventually rejected the municipal rights 1711 in the intent to get their tax levies reduced. Owing to the merits of Jan Przebendowski, the private owner of Ostrów, the locality regained its municipal rights which enabled it to develop trade and crafts – weaving and cloth-manufacture.
Resulting from 2nd Polish Partition of 1793, the town of Ostrów was absorbed by Prussia. In 1807 to 1815, it remained within the limits of the Duchy of Warsaw. This period of existence of an ersatz of free country over, Ostrów was re-seized by the western invader’s rule.
The nineteenth century saw the start-up of a first local railway line, followed by more in the subsequent years. The town was eventually liberated from the conqueror’s yoke on as early as 31st January 1918, and during the Wielkopolska Uprising (1918–1919) warfare it offered a convenient place for the Southern Front command to quarter. Interestingly, November 2008 saw the ninetieth anniversary of what was called the Ostrów Republic: the then-fathers of the national idea advocated Poland’s ownership of those lands. Ostrów dwellers pride themselves on their having been the first to prepare for freedom and to gain its substitute in as early as November 1918. During the Nazi occupation, Ostrów was an essential conspiratorial hub. On 24/25 January 1945, along with the Soviet troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, the city was liberated by Polish Town’s Volunteering Defence troops.
Today, Ostrów is an important industrial centre – e.g. as home to one of Poland’s largest railway rolling-stock repair and maintenance services establishments (formerly, ZNTK; presently, the European Railway Consortium WAGON Sp. z o.o.) and rail interchanges.
Worth Seeing
Centrally situated in the market is a town hall of 1824, designed on order of Antoni Radziwiłł, the then-owner of the town. Renovated in 1977–1986, the building is home to the Museum of the Town of Ostrów Wielkopolski today.
North of the market is a wattle-and-daub former Evangelical church of Our Lady the Queen of Poland, built in 1788.
South-east of the market, your attention will be attracted by the monumental neo-Romanesque St. Stanislaus’s church, built 1905–1907 after the architectural design by Sylwester Pajzderski, as modified by Roger Sławski (1871–1963). The outfit is comprised, inter alia, of sculptures made by Polish artists of renown: Władysław Marcinkowski and Marcin Rożek.
At 21 Raszkowska Street, you will find a former synagogue dated 1857–1860, with two towers topped with bulbous cupolas. It is worth mentioning that in 19th century the Jews formed a significant religious group in the town, amounting to 30% of its population.
For more information, go to:
www.ostrow-wielkopolski.um.gov.pl/en
