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Before Establishing The City

The isthmus between the lakes Niegocin and Kisajno must have been a road in very distant times, along which caravans of merchants hurried to collect the yellow amber treasure. On this isthmus, it was also easy to organize the defense of the country against invasions from the East and the South, or during fights between neighboring tribes. Thus, although the chroniclers of the 13th century describe the entire area of ​​the great Masurian lakes as a huge forest in which only wild animals farm, it is impossible not to see an exaggeration in this, all the more that archaeologists' works also indicate numerous traces of age-old human activity in this region. In pagan times, it was a border area between three neighboring Prussian tribes: Sudov (Yotvingians), Galinds and Barts. It was guarded by a fortified settlement. After the catastrophe of the mission of St. Wojciech was launched in 1008. second mission to the country of Prussia. It was led by the author of the life of St. Wojciech, bishop Bruno of Kwerfurt (born around 974, died in 1009). Bruno went north not following the footsteps of his predecessor, i.e. not from Pomerania, but from the Łomża region, from the border between Poland and Russia. At a great, distant lake, Bruno converted a leader named Izegup or Jesegup to the Christian faith and baptized him and his subjects in the waters of that lake.

Bruno From Querfurt

Bruno's mission from Kwerfurt was undertaken on the initiative and with the support of Bolesław the Brave, of whom Bruno was a close friend. The missionaries of that time entered the pagan lands, trusting in the help of the powers that recognized Christianity as their state religion. Also, neophytes usually counted on such help, if they were in the minority at home. The pagans thus persecuted both missionaries and neophytes in their self-defense, wishing to save independence from foreign intervention and, usually, foreign greed. The mission of Bruno from Kwerfurt ended in a fiasco and martyrdom of the missionary on March 9, 1009, just, it seems, near today's Giżycko. Later, the Prusai were to be converted more often with the sword than with the good news. In the fight against Prussia, the son of Bolesław the Wrymouth, Henryk, the Duke of Sandomierz, a picturesque figure of the Polish Middle Ages, a knight of the cross who invaded the Holy Land, died. Temporary successes in the wars with Prussia were achieved by Kazimierz the Righteous, to whom some Prussian leaders paid tribute and tribute. The Teutonic Knights permanently seized the area of ​​the great Masurian lakes between 1237 and 1283. On October 30, 1910, St. To Bruno a monumental cross, the same as in Tenkittea in Sambia, where according to legend, St. Wojciech. This hill was considered the place of martyrdom of Bruno and his eighteen companions.

Łukasz David, a 16th-century Prussian historian from Olsztyn, claimed that the stronghold of Jesegup was located one mile from the site where the Teutonic castle was later built. It is difficult to decide whether any of the strongholds, inventoried by archaeologists around Giżycko, can be considered the seat of this magnate from the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries. Certainly, however, and this place where the Teutonic Knights erected a castle was also fortified in pagan times, because monastic knights used to build their castles on the foundations of Prussian defensive structures. When they did so, it is not known exactly: according to some in 1285, according to others in 1337 or in 1340. It seems that this dispute about the dates should be resolved by Solomon's judgment: the first one probably means the year of the fortress's construction, the next - the time of its reconstruction or expansion. It is hard to suppose that the Teutonic Knights would have left a place of such strategic importance unprotected for many decades. The castle was named Lötzen. Later, after several centuries, the name was inherited by the city that was built next to the castle.

In 1365. Lithuanians led by Kiejstut captured this castle and burnt it. It was rebuilt immediately and probably in the times of Winrych, Kniprode, in the period of the greatest growth of the Teutonic power, played a fairly important role in the chain of fortresses, from which the aggression against Lithuania originated. The Grand Master himself certainly enjoyed his stay here during his legendary trip, when he circumnavigated Prussia and Mazovia with the waters of rivers and lakes. During the great anti-Teutonic uprising, which triggered the intervention of Poland, which ended after the Thirteen Years' War with the Toruń Peace of 1466, peasant guerrillas were active in the vicinity of the great lakes. The castle was conquered and demolished by Poles in 1455. It was erected again after the war, not in the same place, but several dozen meters closer to the lake, and probably in smaller sizes than before, because it was supposed to be a fortress that '' will not be able to resist an enemy attack ''.

In the times of the Teutonic Knights, the castle was inhabited by lower order Teutonic officials, the so-called pfleger, which literally means guardian. From the Reformation, the castle became the seat of the princely starosts (amtshauptmann), the highest dignitaries of the provincial administration, with extensive police, judicial and military powers, and in addition to supervising the municipal government. This dignity was held by the representatives of the old Prussian aristocracy. Among the princely starosts we note the names of Schlieben's, Dohns, Kunheims, Kanitzes, Kleists, Fink-Finkensteins, and especially the Lehndorffs, who had their aristocratic residence nearby in Sztynort.

When, after the war of 1454-1466 (and especially after the Prussian tribute of 1525), the former territory of the great masters was incorporated into the Polish organism as a fief, the situation changed radically. The country is on the closest roads connecting Lviv, Warsaw and Vilnius with the seaports of Gdańsk, Elbląg, Braniewo and Królewiec. Soon it was cut by numerous paths swarming with travelers. When the border, which had been blazing with warfare, disappeared, the farmer began to transform the fallow into a fertile field.

The location privileges of most of the villages of the Giżycko poviat come from this time. At the very beginning of this period, Nowa Wieś was also granted the location privilege, an estate located near the Loetzen castle. This privilege established the rights of the villagers and the burdens to which they were obliged to be subject. Including The boundaries of the land belonging to the village were marked, its inhabitants were allowed free fishing, bee-keeping and hunting. The size of the charlock for the benefit of the castle, specifying fourteen days a year, a tribute in fish for the commander in Pokarmin (Brandenburg) and the perpetrator (pfleger) in Barciany - according to their needs, and grain deliveries according to national customs. The inhabitants of Nowa Wieś were also obliged to provide ready and in-kind services to the parish priest, to keep the bridge on the road at Niegocin in order and to various other services listed in detail or marked with the phrase '' according to the prevailing custom ''.

The chairman of the rural self-government was authorized to judge in small civil and criminal cases, and for the performed function he was granted free land and interest on fines. In the document drawn up in German, he was called the staroste in Polish, which is undoubtedly proof that the village had Polish inhabitants at a time when dignitaries dressed in white coats with black crosses still ruled over the area. The location document comes from 1475. and is a renewal of an older, lost privilege. The location document shows that the village as early as 1475. she had a priest who took over his parish in 1481. His successor, from 1484, was Fr. Jan. In 1513, apart from the inn of Simon Bredaska, Nowa Wieś had two more inns owned by a certain Jozef and a certain Czycki.

Already in 1509, the starost of Nowa Wieś called himself the mayor. Therefore, it pretended to be called a city. She also began to vigorously strive for the granting of municipal rights. It is not known exactly when this action was successful, because from the foundation act only a scrap without a date has survived to the present day. It can only be concluded from his text that it was later than similar efforts by Gołdap, Węgorzewo and Ekspruci, i.e. after 1572. However, the success was only partial, because the privilege included only 35 fibers in the urban area, so it did not extend to a large part of Nowa Wieś, whose inhabitants were still in arduous dependence on the lords of the Giżycko castle. Thus, applications were sent to Królewiec and delegations were sent there persistently, systematically, every few years. Although during the terrible plague, from which prince Albrecht fled from Konigsberg to the Masurian forests, Nowa Wieś lost most of its inhabitants, but a quarter of a century later, in 1573, also soon after the epidemic was over, 64 young couples, brightly proof that the town was populous at that time. It should be assumed that it was a thriving center of crafts and trade. In September 1611 Prussian prince Jan Zygmunt stayed for a few days in the Giżycko castle. Nowa Wieś must have made a positive impression on the prince, because the next request of its inhabitants was not refused. On May 15, 1612, a detailed act was prepared in the Königsberg chancellery, granting them the desired rights.

It should come as no surprise that the inhabitants of Giżycko so persistently tried to obtain city rights. Having them guaranteed great political and economic benefits. When the peasants were essentially at the mercy and disfavor of the nobility and rendered enormous tributes and duties in their favor, the cities enjoyed great independence. They managed with their own funds, set their own rights and elected authorities - the city council with the mayor, the bench, ie the city court. Attempts to control finances or to revise the ordinances of the municipality, made by the central government, avoided interference in the internal affairs of the urban community. The city air, as it was said, made people free. In the cities, craftsmen could organize themselves, create guilds; in cities, it was possible to introduce a number of laws that favored the development of trade.

In Giżycko, the same rules were introduced on which the self-government of Ducal Prussia and Royal Prussia was based, although in contrast to the large cities that were almost independent republics - the ducal starosta more scrupulously used the right of supervision here. In Giżycko, the richer people enjoyed civil rights. They were divided into full and limited ones. In order to receive full rights, the newcomer had to pay 30 fines to the citizen's son - four and a half fines. These were serious amounts. At that time, the annual salary of a city laborer was six fines plus a jacket, trousers, stockings and two pairs of shoes. Farmers and girls were paid for service only with clothing and food.

At a time when the inhabitants of Nowa Wieś applied for the city privilege, it seemed that the future city would have great development prospects, justified by its favorable location on large trade routes. Indeed, in the first half of the 17th century, Giżycko significantly enlarged its area, and probably also the number of its inhabitants. Then the defeat of war fell on them, and when it started to shake off it, it turned out that it was no longer lying on those roads, but on the contrary, it was walled up in the farthest corner of the country, which in 1701 received the name of the Kingdom of Prussia. So Giżycko remained a small and poor town. Above the town, on its south-west side, there was a castle. In the years 1613-1614 it underwent a thorough reconstruction. The old Teutonic building was then shaped in the Renaissance style. Residential wings were added to it, which later, in 1749, was completely destroyed by fire.

Already in the times of the Teutonic Knights, a small borough was created under the castle, inhabited by craftsmen working for its needs. In the first half of the 17th century, by the road connecting the borough, the so-called Wola, along with the former Nowa Wieś, is spread over numerous buildings in Giżycko. This street became the axis of the city, and the former Nowa Wieś became its northern suburb, originally called the Village, then Nowowiejska Street. The last name has survived to our times as a reminder of the era closed to Giżycko with the date of 1612.

The central point of the estate was the market square, highly elongated, trapezoidal, created from the extension of the part of the road crossing it diagonally from the south-west to the north-east corner. Towns developed around the market square, with one branch towards the former Nowa Wieś and the other towards Lake Niegocin (now Wodna Street). In 1613. the inhabitants of Giżycko erected the town hall, probably in the western frontage of the market square. Unfortunately, we do not have any iconographic data about the appearance of this building. It burned down in the great fire of the city in 1822.

In the eastern frontage of the market square stood a church, the temple where Maciej of Brzostów and the Anabaptists used to preach, was a small, wooden building, in 1633 it disintegrated and in the same year a new brick church, 85 feet long, 45 feet wide was built in Giżycko. and a height of 14 feet. Thanks to the efforts of the parish priest, Kasper Dannovius, in 1642 a tower with a beautiful and expensive dome was added to this temple. The interior is decorated in the choir with portraits of Prussian princes, supposedly an excellent paintbrush. This church, which is the pride of the city, burned down in 1686. Rebuilt much more modestly (initially even without the tower, which was added to it only in 1709), it was damaged during a storm in 1818, and finally fell into ruins after a fire in 1822.

The streets and the square were not paved: the city was not lit at night. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Giżycko had several dozen residential buildings, and at each of them also farm buildings. In 1692, under the rule of the mayor Jan Jakunowski, Giżycko was inspected. It showed that the city then had 32 brick buildings, 5 houses, the so-called halves, 48 ​​wooden houses, the so-called "Bud", more than 20 garden houses. The front of the largest house was 83 feet, the smallest (brick) 49 feet. All houses had one room and one chamber. there was a lack of it, because the buildings in Giżycko were loose and there was a considerable distance between the house and the house.

All houses were thatched with straw. Therefore, it was not difficult to catch fires. Giżycko was burnt in 1657, 1686, 1756. March 8, 1786 the fire consumed nearly one hundred residential and farm buildings. The girl was then captured and, out of revenge, she set fire to the house of her employers. After elaborate torments, she was publicly beheaded and her body was burned at the stake. The execution took place outside the city, on the road to Węgorzewo. Thus, almost every generation of Giżycko's inhabitants had to build their city anew.

Though. Giżycko is situated on lakes and although the city had, as the description from 1692 shows, three public wells, and almost as many private ones as for households, the inhabitants did not abuse water for personal hygiene. People of the past ages did not know washing their hands before eating, morning and evening ablutions, frequent change of underwear. The waste was poured directly onto the street. Every now and then 'air', one of the four great natural disasters, took a heavy toll. The most terrible was the plague of 1709-1710. It came after a harsh winter, during which, as the chronicles recall, birds fell cold, and hungry wolves and bears ventured into villages and towns in search of food. In May, the ground was still one meter deep, and the Baltic Sea. tens of kilometers from the coast in ice. High prices and hunger reigned in the spring. Then came the plague, the last time in Europe on such a large scale.

Within a few months, over eight hundred people, almost the entire population of the town, died in Giżycko. The deceased include both clergymen, parish priest Jerzy Boretius, father of an outstanding doctor and deacon, Daniel Pomian Pessarovius, grandson of the patriarch of the Masurian clergy, famous for being 102 years old and educating all six sons as pastors. The defeat was accompanied by widespread panic and social upset. The bodies lay unburied. Homesteads, where entire families have died out, have been robbed of chattels, food, and clothing, despite the fact that this is what makes death for themselves. There was no obedience to the authorities, the more so as the riots were still fresh in the memory, the only more serious in the history of Giżycko, when in 1708 the masses demonstrated their dissatisfaction with the election of the mayor, Krzysztof Grosz. In the book of baptisms of the Giżycko parish from 1711 there is a Latin poem in which the author pleaded with the Almighty "to fill this earth with new people, for the ominous plague has devastated it immeasurably".

The facility, called the hospital, existed in Giżycko from 1581. However, it was not a medical facility, but a poorhouse. In 1680. Church books mentioned the first doctor practicing in Giżycko: the surgeon Abraham Droz. From 1708, the town had a pharmacy. However, the level of medicine was very low at the time. Doctors recommended smoking and wearing amulets as anti-plague measures.

Right at the beginning of the new era, several elementary disasters struck Giżycko, which stopped the town's development for many years. On July 17, 1816, a great fire destroyed 34 buildings in Giżycko. January 17, 1818 a powerful hurricane hit the Masurian Lake District. It raged over Giżycko within seven hours, it destroyed three quarters of the city forest stand, ripped off the roofs of most houses, and smashed a mill and several buildings. The metal cupola of the church tower in Giżycko, under a powerful gust of wind, twisted thirty centimeters to the east. Four years later, on April 3, 1822, a fire hit the town again. It was the biggest fire in the history of Giżycko. It exploded for unknown reasons and quickly engulfed the buildings around the church. After a few hours, a strong wind carried the fire to the farthest ends of the city. 205 buildings burned down, including 50 residential buildings, 9 granaries, 4 mills, 74 stables, 54 barns, a church and parish buildings, a town hall, a school, a shelter, and a fire station. The inhabitants did not save almost anything of their property. Even the landrat (district starost), Karol von Przyborowski, lost everything. There were no human casualties. In 1831, the cholera epidemic (the same of which Hegel, Dybicz and Grand Duke Konstanty died at that time) in Giżycko resulted in the death of one hundred people.

The origin of this name has long intrigued historians. They put forward various, sometimes even fantastic hypotheses on this matter. According to one, the castle got its name because it was the last (letzte) fortress founded by the Order in the borderlands of the Teutonic Order. The hypothesis is completely arbitrary, because you can replace the castles founded by the Teutonic Knights and later and further east. Others speculate that the German settlers brought the name from their homeland. There is indeed the city of Lützen in Germany, famous for the battle in which the Swedish king Gustav Adolf fell, but there is no evidence that any colonists came from there to Prussia. Still other historians claim that the castle was named after a knight named von Lötzen. However, although the chronicles recorded the family of this surname, it was so late that it can be expected that it took its name from the name of the castle, and not the other way around.

During the discussions over the name of the city in 1945-1947 and later, Polish historians and linguists commonly stated that the name Lötzen was originally German. Meanwhile, German historians are more inclined to believe that it is of Old Prussian origin, and do not even exclude its Polish etymology. Therefore, they pay attention to the similarity between the sound of 'lecen' and 'lecbark' (the original name of Lidzbark) or 'liski', which in Old Prussian means a camp. In his Chronik der Gemeinde Lötzen, pastor Ernest Trincker even cites such amusing attempts to explain the name of Lötzen as Wollweber's hypothesis that it comes from the Polish `` reins '' (bridles), or from the word `` to fly '', i.e. run away (and the castle was an escape from danger, and the first settlers were probably refugees from Mazovia). The hypothesis about the origin of the names' Lötzen 'and' Lec '' from the word 'lie', which in the old Polish language meant the camp (to lay out the lair), looks a bit more probable. It should be remembered that the Germans read 'c' or 'c', so it is not difficult to transform the word 'lie' into 'lecen'.

As I mentioned, there is a hypothesis that derives the name Lötzen from the Old Prussian 'liski', which also means a camp. Perhaps the name 'liski' was translated by Polish settlers into 'lie', and then Germanized into 'Lötzen'? The Masurians transformed this German form again into 'Lec' and used it in this sound until the times. It should be assumed that the thesis about the German origin of the former name of Giżycko cannot be proved. However, its Polish origin also seems unlikely. At the time when the stronghold on Niegocin was being built, Polish settlement did not reach here yet. It seems that the error in the discussion so far was that the name Lötzen (Lec) was treated as unique and no kinship was sought, e.g. in the names Oletzko (Olecko), Lyck (Łek, the original form of Ełk) etc. to prove themselves, and this could be done only by linguists who are familiar with the monuments of the Prussian and Old Lithuanian language - then the Old Prussian origins of the former name Giżycko would not be in doubt.

The dispute over the name of the city

Immediately after the war, the city bore the old Masurian name of Lec. The first representatives of the Polish authorities, Stanisław Włodarski and Adam Petolec, had the title of government plenipotentiaries for Lec. Soon, however, the name Łoczany was used for the town on Niegocin. Later, the name Łuczany was adopted both in official relations, as well as in colloquial speech and in official publications.

On March 4, 1946, the Commission for Establishing the Names of Localities, operating under the minister of Public Administration, established the name of Giżycko for the city. This change sparked a discussion in the press and met with strong resistance in the society of Giżycko attached to the previous name. Until the end of 1946, the name Łuczany was used, and various interventions were tried, even with the highest agents in the state. The County National Council by the resolution of August 13, 1946. filed an official protest against the renaming of the city. As a result of these objections, the Commission for Determining the Names of Localities re-examined the matter on October 23 and 28, 1946. Prof. Stanisław Srokowski, who supported the petition of the Poviat National Council, gave such an account to the then starost.

Roma lacuta, causa finita. However, for a long time the name of Łuczany was commemorated in Giżycko and in neighboring towns in the form of various "Łuczanki", as gastronomic establishments or workplaces, Łuczańska streets, etc. were called.