Gryfice

Gryfice

Sights of Gryfice

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Coat of arms
Gryfice
Coordinates: 53°54′53″N 15°11′55″E / 53.91472°N 15.19861°E / 53.91472; 15.19861
Country  Poland
Voivodeship West Pomeranian
County Gryfice County
Gmina Gmina Gryfice
City rights 1262
Government
 • Mayor Andrzej Wacław Szczygieł
Area
 • Total 12.4 km2 (4.8 sq mi)
Population (2008)
 • Total 16,632
 • Density 1,300/km2 (3,500/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 72-300
Car plates ZGY
Website http://www.urzad.gryfice.eu/

Gryfice ([ɡrɨˈfʲit͡sɛ]; Kashubian: Grëfice), formerly known by its German name Greifenberg,[1] is a town in Pomerania, north-western Poland with 16 632 inhabitants (2008). It is the capital of Gryfice County in West Pomeranian Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Szczecin Voivodeship (1975–1998).

History

The Battle of Niekładź took place in the area of Gryfice in 1121, in which Polish ruler Bolesław III Krzywousty defeated Wartislaw I, Duke of Pomerania and Swantopolk I, Duke of Pomerania[2][3]

In 1262, throughout the German Ostsiedlung, Wartislaw III, Duke of Pomerania founded a town under Lübeck law on the Rega river. After his death, his successor, Barnim I, Duke of Pomerania, named the settlement Civitat Griphemberch super Regam (Griffinsmountain) after the coat of arms symbol of the Dukes of Pomerania. In 1365 the town entered the Hansa and prospered due to the right of free navigation on the Rega.

A town wall was built and at the end of the 13th century the construction of the St. Mary’s church was begun. In a document of 1386 a Latin school is mentioned, which is generally called the oldest in Pomerania. After the death of the last Pomeranian Duke and by the Treaty of Westphalia Greifenberg became part of Brandenburg-Prussia in 1648 and part of Imperial Germany in 1871. In 1818 the town became the capital of the Greifenberg district (Kreis Greifenberg).

In 1894 the town was connected to the railway line Altdamm - Kolberg. On July 1, 1896 the Greifenberger Kleinbahn was opened, a narrow-gauge railway today used as a railway Museum.

At the end of World War II Soviet Red Army conquered the town, approximately 40 percent of the town was destroyed by a fire. Following the post-war boundary changes, Greifenberg was renamed Gryfice and became Polish. Its German population was expelled and the town was populated with Poles, many of them expellees themselves from Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union.

Demographics

Before the end of World War II the (then-German) inhabitants were predominantly Protestant. With the transformation into a Polish town after World War II, the majority of its population has been composed of Catholics.

Number of inhabitants in years
Year Inhabitants Notes
1740 1,724[4]
1782 1,890 incl. 20 Jews.[4]
1794 2,138 incl. 19 Jews.[4]
1812 2,445 incl. 15 Catholics and 35 Jews.[4]
1816 2,610 incl. 44 Catholics and 35 Jews.[4]
1831 3,272 incl. 13 Catholics and 82 Jews.[4]
1843 4,027 incl. 9 Catholics and 132 Jews.[4]
1852 4,886 incl. 15 Catholics and 129 Jews.[4]
1861 5,361 incl. 31 Catholics, and 134 Jews.[4]
1900 6,477[5]
1925 8,370 incl. 110 Catholics, 80 Jews and 630 others.[6]
1939 10,800
1946 4,900 after expulsion of Germans after World War II and war losses
1950 8,700
1960 11,600
1970 13,200
1980 15,300
1990 17,600
2000 17,300

Notable residents

International relations

Twin towns — Sister cities

Gryfice is twinned with:

References

Literature
Notes
  1. ↑ " Baynes, T.S.; Smith, W.R., eds. (1880). "Greifenberg". Encyclopædia Britannica. 11 (9th ed.). p. 183.. 1880.
  2. ↑ Rodowód książat pomorskich Szczecin 2005 page 94-95, 98
  3. ↑ Richard Roepell: Geschichte Polens, vol. I, Hamburg 1840, pp. 267-268 (in German)
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Kratz (1965), p. 176.
  5. ↑ Meyers Konversations-Lexikon. 6th edition, vol. 8, Leipzig and Vienna 1907, p. 272.
  6. ↑ Der Große Brockhaus. 15th edition, vol. 2, Leipzig 1929, p. 488.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gryfice.

 "Greifenberg". Encyclopædia Britannica. 12 (11th ed.). 1911. 

Coordinates: 53°54′53″N 15°11′55″E / 53.91472°N 15.19861°E / 53.91472; 15.19861

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