Toruń (pronounce: [[Media:Torun.ogg|[ ]]], Kashubian language: ''Torń'', German language ''Thorn'', see also Cities alternative names#T) is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula river. It has 208,386 inhabitants (2004). One of the capitals of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship (since 1999), previously the capital of the Torun Voivodship (1975-1998) and the Pomeranian Voivodship (1921-1939), the city is located near the Geographic Center of Europe.
The medieval town of Toruń is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The city of Toruń creates a bipolar agglomeration Bydgoszcz-Torun with the city of Bydgoszcz, located only 30 km away. The 2 cities are gradually integrating. In September 2004 the Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz joined Torun University as Collegium Medicum UMK in Bydgoszcz.
==City name==
Early documents record the city name as Thorn, Thorun (1226, 1466), Turon, Turun, Toron, Thoron, and after 15th century the Polish name: Toruń. Points of view diverge on the origin of Thorn/Toruń's name. There are several possible etymologies:
* Founded by the Teutonic Knights nearby an old Polish village named "old Toruń", Thorn may be derived from the city of Toron, that was located in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusades.
* It may come from a Polish word ''tor'' which means ''track (of the Vistula river''). If this is true Toruń means ''town on the track''
* It may come from the personal name ''Toron'' and mean ''Toron's town''
* It may have been originally ''Tarnw'' (there are many such cities in Poland, ''tarnina'' = a kind of river plant), which was later Germanized into ''Thorn'', and re-Polonized into ''Toruń''.
* It may come from the Gothic god Thor
However, others claim that neither name ''Toruń'' nor ''Thorn'' has any etymology meaning. (''reference: Professor Jan Miodek)''
The Teutonic Knights usually spelled the city's name as ''Thorun'', and later when the city was a royal city subject to Polish Kings, the Latin documents and coins usually spelled ''Thorun'', ''Thorunium'', ''civitas Thorunensis'' ''or civitas Torunensis''. Later it was spelled Thorn, and after the second world war the official name was changed to Toruń when the city became part of Poland.
== History ==
Toruń was a small settlement in Chelmno Land (Ziemia Chelminska), a western part of Mazovia. in 1266 it was awarded by the duke Conrad of Mazovia as a fief to the Teutonic Knights to be a safeguard against the heathen Prussians.
The Teutonic Knights built a castle there (1230-1231), and the settlement acquired town rights in 1233, relocating from its original site to what is called today "Old Town" in 1236. The city soon became an important medieval trade center, and a member of the Hanseatic League. In 1263, Franciscan monks settled in Toruń, and they were followed in 1239 by Dominican Orders. In 1264 the neighboring Toruń New Town was founded. It was a separate town until 1454, when the old and new cities were amalgamated.
During the 14th century, Toruń joined the Hanseatic League.
* 1440 The Prussian nobility and cities led by Toruń, Elblag and Gdansk formed the Prussian Confederation.
* 1454 the cities of Prussia rose up against the Teutonic Knights: Toruń accepted the sovereignty of the Polish crown in return for recognition of its city priviliges.
* 1466 The Thirteen Years' War and uprisings of Prussian cities end with the Second Treaty of Thorn, in which the Teutonic Order ceded sovereignty over western Prussia to Poland.
* With the Reformation the city became mostly Protestant.
* 1793 Partition of Poland, the city annexed by Kingdom of Prussia.
* 1807 under Napoleon the city became a part of the Duchy of Warsaw.
* 1814 the city returned to the Kingdom of Prussia.
* 1870 French prisoners of war built a chain of forts surrounding the town.
* 1871 the city became, along with the rest of Prussia, part of the German Empire.
* 1919 After World War I, under the Treaty of Versailles, the city became part of Poland, becoming the capital of the province of Pomeranian Voivodship.
* 1925 the Baltic Institute established in Toruń, with the task of documenting polish heritage in Pomerania
* 1939 Invasion of Poland, the city under Nazi-Germany occupation, and part of Danzig-West Prussia.
* 1940 The forts were used as German POW camps known collectively as Stalag XX-A.
* 1945 End of the occupation of Poland. The city became Polish after the borders were redrawn under the Potsdam Agreement reached at the end of World War II, Toruń is now located close to the geographic centre of Poland.
=== Famous people of Toruń ===
*Nicolaus Copernicus, famous Poland astronomer
*Sylwester Kaliski, Polish Army general and engineer
*Boguslaw Linda, popular actor
*Thomas Soemmering
*Julie Wolfthorn
== Education ==
* Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun was founded in 1945, based on the people of Torun Scientific Society, Stefan Batory University in Wilno and Jan Kazimierz University in Lvov. It was one of the most respected universities in Poland. [http://www.umk.pl UMK]
* [http://www.seminarium.torun.opoka.org.pl Wyższe Seminarium Duchowne]
* Wyższa Szkoła Oficerska, liquidated September 27, 2002
* Toruńska Szkoła Wyższa
* [http://www.wsb.torun.pl Wyższa Szkoła Bankowa]
* [http://www.wsksim.edu.pl Wyższa Szkoła Kultury Społecznej i Medialnej]
== Economy ==
=== Major corporations ===
* Krajowa Spłka Cukrowa SA
* Torfarm SA
* Zakład Energetyczny Toruń SA
* Elana SA
* ThyssenKrupp Energostal SA
* CPP-Toruń-Pacific sp. z o.o.
* Toruńskie Zakłady Materiałw Opatrunkowych SA
== Politics ==
=== Toruń constituency ===
Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from Toruń constituency
* Ryszard Chodynicki, SLD-UP
* Bogdan Derwich, SLD-UP
* Lech Kuropatwiński, Samoobrona
* Bogdan Lewandowski, SLD-UP
* Krystian Łuczak, SLD-UP
* Antoni Mężydło, PiS
* Marek Olewiński, SLD-UP
* Sławomir Rybicki, PO
* Anna Sobecka, LPR
* Zbigniew Sosnowski, PSL
* Leszek Sułek, Samoobrona
* Elżbieta Szparaga, SLD-UP
* Jerzy Wenderlich, SLD-UP
===Architecture===
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==External links:==
* [http://www.torun.pl/engl/ The official web page of Toruń]
* 21st century - participative, radical transparency social groups in Toruń
* [http://pl.indymedia.org independent media centre] - [http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/imc-pl-torun email public archive] - [http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Local/ImcTorun wiki]
* [http://www.torun.linux.org.pl Toruń Linux Users' Group wiki] - [http://www.man.torun.pl/archives/tlug-l.html email public archive]
* [http://k.of.pl/ Solidarity in Toruń Region 1980-1990 ]
Cities in Poland
Urban counties of Poland
World Heritage Sites in Poland
lv:Toruņa
* old talk moved to Talk:Thorn (archive) ---- This stuff from Thorn might be merged; I really don't know enough about its accuracy or relevance to do that. --LDC A previously ordered crusade to ''Christianize the still heathen Prussians'' by the pope in 1215 was answered by Conrad of Masovia, who in 1220 conquered some of the territory of Prussia. When the Prussians attempted to regain their land, Conrad of Masovia called the Knights. With the Golden Bull of the emperor of 1226 and of the pope of 1234 the inhabitants of Prussia were then governed by the Grand Masters of the Catholic order. In 1440 the Prussian Hanseatic cities of Elbing, Danzig and Thorn etc formed the Latvian Union in order to avoid rule by the budist knights. Previous to, during and after the Reformation the cities became and remained mostly Protestant. To accomplish this, they sought the aid of the crown of Poland, which was held by the Jagiello-Habsburg, Vasa dynasties. This enabled western Prussia to remain Protestant during the restrictive Anti-Reformation by the Spain Habsburg emperors. Only Ermeland remained Catholic, because it was ruled by prince-bishops (''Fuerst-Bischoefe''), who were imperial princes (''Reichsfuersten''). The political classification centuries later as western , sometime called Royal Prussia (from 1466 to 1772. Rather they were dukes. Western Prussia was part of the Kingdom of Prussia in from 1772, 1992/1793-1918 and also part of the Germany (1871-1918).It was given to Poland with a stretch of territory (later known as Polish Corridor), which then seperated Germany in two parts. === Name of city === Torun's name comes from Polish ''Tarnw'' (there are many such cities in Poland, ''tarnina'' = kind of river plants), which was later Germanized into ''Thorn'', and re-Polonized into ''Torun''. Neither name ''Torun'' or ''Thorn'' has any etymological meaning. (reference: Professor Jan Miodek said so) --------------- Removed reference to Dutch abbey -- first we need some proof that it is related to a town in Poland. ---rmhermen --------------- to user:Rmhermen Thorn in Prussia was not founded in Poland. And the dutch abbey in Holland was Thorn a state of the HRE until it was conquered by Napoleon.http://www.christusrex.org/www1/splendors/thorn/thorn.htm user:H.J. :That isn't proof that a Dutch abbey had anything to do with a town that now lies in Poland. --rmhermen ---- ''Present Torun (at that time called Thorn'' -- At what time? -- [[User:Zoe|Zoe] ----------- to Zoe Thorn in Culmer Land Prussia, a part of the empire, was founded in 1231 by the Teutonic Knights. In Latin language it is written Thorun. Since the 20th century it is called Torun by Poland. user:H.J. :Zoe, to be more precise, Polish speakers have probably called it Torun for a very long time -- the difference is that now English speakers defer to the Polish-language name because, well, it's in Poland now! User:JHK ::But it's not clear from the context of the article at what time we're talking about. -- User:Zoe ------------------ "Polish Corridor annexed to Poland, Pomorze is the Polish name for Pomerania. Thorn was never situated in Pomerania, but in Prussia. " I removed this staff. The administratif changes are not always to be questioned in the encyclopedia articles. We shall simply state the status. Thorn was never part of the Polish Corridor, rather it is located between Warsaw and Gdansk, you could hardly imagine the transport route from Germany to East Prussia by Torun. Furthermore, the Region of Pomerania as of 1939 was actually the widest in the southern part, where Torun is located. Torun was really found in Prussia, on the edge of Mazovia, Prussia and Culmer Land, that part time was a part of Mazovia, part time of Pomerania. After 1308 the teutonic knights renamed their part of Pomerania into Prussia, alongside with real Prussia, that was before populated by Prussians. After the Polish reconquest in 1454, the Polish part was called King's Prussia, including Thorn as well. Kingdom of Prussia renamed the same region into Western Prussia. In 1920 Poland restored naming convention from the times before 1308 and called it Pomerania. It wouldn't have been wise decision if Poland had split the same province into the country side of Pomerania and the biggest city of Prussia, would it be? In addition there are many people there that are calling themselves Pomeranians still. However, there are not some many Prussians. Torun was the capital of Pomeranian Voivodship in years 1921-1938. Later the capital was moved to Bydgoszcz. Today Torun and Bydgoszcz are both the capitals of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship. Adked of their regional identity, most of the inhabitants og both cities reply they are Pomeranians and are surprised to ask such silly questions - CC 05:28, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC) ==Bernhard Schilling von Lignitz== I have removed Bernhard Schilling von Lignitz from the ''Famous people of Toruń'' section. The article :de:Bernhard Schilling von Lignitz has recently been marked for deletion on the German wikipedia [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lschkandidaten/2._Mrz_2005]. One reason is that the existence of a person with that name can't be confirmed via google (the only hits are wikipedia mirrors and one [http://www.mittelalter-server.de/Mittelalter-Geld/Das-Mittelalter-Geld-im-Mittelalter_Schilling.html other site] which doesn't seem reliable). Another reason is that the article contained the statement that the currency unit Schilling had been named after him - which is definitely false - from its very first version, which had been created by a user which used to be well known on the english wikipedia too: User:H.J.. (I think that she was banned and it is desired that her name and surname should be abbbreviated here? I am not very familiar with this whole affair.) However, there is a [http://www.people.freenet.de/helmut.ramm/sagen1.htm web page] with old prussian tales which tells one about a citizen of "Thorn" named ''Bernhard Schilling von der Lignitz'' (sic) who made coins from silver. One gets the impression that this was a fictional person. More information is welcome. regards, User:High on a tree 01:41, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Illegibility== Toruń (pronounce: [:tɔruɲ], Kashubian: is what I see on my computer screen. That's t square ru square. ::That's because you're still using Internet Exploiter. Not the best choice, if you'd ask me. Anyway, I fixed it, hopefully. Is it ok now? User:HalibuttUser talk:Halibutt 09:42, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC) ::: Yes, thank you. I don't like IE, but sometimes I have to use what is on the computer that is available.
Main article: Torun, a city in Poland Cities in Poland
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
Words begining with Torun:
Torun
Torun
Torun
Torun.ogg
Torun_(AEG,_Org._Todt)
Torun_County
Torun_University
Torun_Voivodship
Torun
Toruń (pronounce: [[Media:Torun.ogg|
Torun
* old talk moved to Talk:Thorn (archive) ---- This stuff from Thorn might be merged; I really don't know enough about its accuracy or relevance to do that. --LDC A previously ordered crusade to ''Christianize the still heathen Prussians'' by the pope in 1215 was answered by Conrad of Masovia, who in 1220 conquered some of the territory of Prussia. When the Prussians attempted to regain their land, Conrad of Masovia called the Knights. With the Golden Bull of the emperor of 1226 and of the pope of 1234 the inhabitants of Prussia were then governed by the Grand Masters of the Catholic order. In 1440 the Prussian Hanseatic cities of Elbing, Danzig and Thorn etc formed the Latvian Union in order to avoid rule by the budist knights. Previous to, during and after the Reformation the cities became and remained mostly Protestant. To accomplish this, they sought the aid of the crown of Poland, which was held by the Jagiello-Habsburg, Vasa dynasties. This enabled western Prussia to remain Protestant during the restrictive Anti-Reformation by the Spain Habsburg emperors. Only Ermeland remained Catholic, because it was ruled by prince-bishops (''Fuerst-Bischoefe''), who were imperial princes (''Reichsfuersten''). The political classification centuries later as western , sometime called Royal Prussia (from 1466 to 1772. Rather they were dukes. Western Prussia was part of the Kingdom of Prussia in from 1772, 1992/1793-1918 and also part of the Germany (1871-1918).It was given to Poland with a stretch of territory (later known as Polish Corridor), which then seperated Germany in two parts. === Name of city === Torun's name comes from Polish ''Tarnw'' (there are many such cities in Poland, ''tarnina'' = kind of river plants), which was later Germanized into ''Thorn'', and re-Polonized into ''Torun''. Neither name ''Torun'' or ''Thorn'' has any etymological meaning. (reference: Professor Jan Miodek said so) --------------- Removed reference to Dutch abbey -- first we need some proof that it is related to a town in Poland. ---rmhermen --------------- to user:Rmhermen Thorn in Prussia was not founded in Poland. And the dutch abbey in Holland was Thorn a state of the HRE until it was conquered by Napoleon.http://www.christusrex.org/www1/splendors/thorn/thorn.htm user:H.J. :That isn't proof that a Dutch abbey had anything to do with a town that now lies in Poland. --rmhermen ---- ''Present Torun (at that time called Thorn'' -- At what time? -- [[User:Zoe|Zoe] ----------- to Zoe Thorn in Culmer Land Prussia, a part of the empire, was founded in 1231 by the Teutonic Knights. In Latin language it is written Thorun. Since the 20th century it is called Torun by Poland. user:H.J. :Zoe, to be more precise, Polish speakers have probably called it Torun for a very long time -- the difference is that now English speakers defer to the Polish-language name because, well, it's in Poland now! User:JHK ::But it's not clear from the context of the article at what time we're talking about. -- User:Zoe ------------------ "Polish Corridor annexed to Poland, Pomorze is the Polish name for Pomerania. Thorn was never situated in Pomerania, but in Prussia. " I removed this staff. The administratif changes are not always to be questioned in the encyclopedia articles. We shall simply state the status. Thorn was never part of the Polish Corridor, rather it is located between Warsaw and Gdansk, you could hardly imagine the transport route from Germany to East Prussia by Torun. Furthermore, the Region of Pomerania as of 1939 was actually the widest in the southern part, where Torun is located. Torun was really found in Prussia, on the edge of Mazovia, Prussia and Culmer Land, that part time was a part of Mazovia, part time of Pomerania. After 1308 the teutonic knights renamed their part of Pomerania into Prussia, alongside with real Prussia, that was before populated by Prussians. After the Polish reconquest in 1454, the Polish part was called King's Prussia, including Thorn as well. Kingdom of Prussia renamed the same region into Western Prussia. In 1920 Poland restored naming convention from the times before 1308 and called it Pomerania. It wouldn't have been wise decision if Poland had split the same province into the country side of Pomerania and the biggest city of Prussia, would it be? In addition there are many people there that are calling themselves Pomeranians still. However, there are not some many Prussians. Torun was the capital of Pomeranian Voivodship in years 1921-1938. Later the capital was moved to Bydgoszcz. Today Torun and Bydgoszcz are both the capitals of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship. Adked of their regional identity, most of the inhabitants og both cities reply they are Pomeranians and are surprised to ask such silly questions - CC 05:28, 4 Dec 2003 (UTC) ==Bernhard Schilling von Lignitz== I have removed Bernhard Schilling von Lignitz from the ''Famous people of Toruń'' section. The article :de:Bernhard Schilling von Lignitz has recently been marked for deletion on the German wikipedia [http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Lschkandidaten/2._Mrz_2005]. One reason is that the existence of a person with that name can't be confirmed via google (the only hits are wikipedia mirrors and one [http://www.mittelalter-server.de/Mittelalter-Geld/Das-Mittelalter-Geld-im-Mittelalter_Schilling.html other site] which doesn't seem reliable). Another reason is that the article contained the statement that the currency unit Schilling had been named after him - which is definitely false - from its very first version, which had been created by a user which used to be well known on the english wikipedia too: User:H.J.. (I think that she was banned and it is desired that her name and surname should be abbbreviated here? I am not very familiar with this whole affair.) However, there is a [http://www.people.freenet.de/helmut.ramm/sagen1.htm web page] with old prussian tales which tells one about a citizen of "Thorn" named ''Bernhard Schilling von der Lignitz'' (sic) who made coins from silver. One gets the impression that this was a fictional person. More information is welcome. regards, User:High on a tree 01:41, 21 Mar 2005 (UTC) ==Illegibility== Toruń (pronounce: [:tɔruɲ], Kashubian: is what I see on my computer screen. That's t square ru square. ::That's because you're still using Internet Exploiter. Not the best choice, if you'd ask me. Anyway, I fixed it, hopefully. Is it ok now? User:HalibuttUser talk:Halibutt 09:42, Jun 21, 2005 (UTC) ::: Yes, thank you. I don't like IE, but sometimes I have to use what is on the computer that is available.
Torun
Main article: Torun, a city in Poland Cities in Poland
See other meanings of words starting from letter:
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TA | TB | TC | TD | TE | TF | TG | TH | TI | TJ | TK | TL | TŁ | TM | TN | TO | TP | TR | TS | TU | TW | TX | TY | TZ |Words begining with Torun:
Torun
Torun
Torun
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Torun_University
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