Nowe Brzesko is a

town A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world. Origin and use The word "town" shares an o ...

Proszowice County __NOTOC__ Proszowice County ( pl, powiat proszowicki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local govern ...

Lesser Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland Voivodeship or Lesser Poland Province (in pl, województwo małopolskie ), also known as Małopolska, is a voivodeship (province), in southern Poland. It has an area of , and a population of 3,404,863 (2019). It was created on 1 ...

, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

(administrative district) called Gmina Nowe Brzesko. It lies approximately south-east of

Proszowice Proszowice is a town in southern Poland, situated in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Kraków Voivodeship (1975–1998). Its population numbers 6,206 inhabitants (2004). It is the capital of Proszowice County, and the t ...

and east of the regional capital

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

. According to 2011 official census Nowe Brzesko has population of 1662. It gained town rights in 1279, but lost that status in 1870 by decree of the Russian

tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

. It became a town again on 1 January 2011. Nowe Brzesko was first mentioned in the first half of the 13th century. The village belonged to the Bishops of Kraków, who handed it to the

Norbertine The Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré (), also known as the Premonstratensians, the Norbertines and, in Britain and Ireland, as the White Canons (from the colour of their habit), is a religious order of canons regular of the Catholic Church ...

abbey from nearby Hebdów. On October 6, 1279, it became a town, and its first known

wójt Wójt is a Polish senior civil administrative officer and the highest representative of the government of a '' rural gmina'', i.e., of a commune (''gmina'') comprising only villages. (Heads of towns and cities are called "burgomaster" (Polish: ''bu ...

was Gotfryd, the son of Arnold from

Ślesin Ślesin is a town in Konin County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,324 inhabitants (2004). In partitioned Poland it belonged to the Russian-controlled Congress Kingdom from 1815; it returned to Poland when the country regained its ind ...

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest cit ...

. Due to several privileges, the town quickly developed, but in the first half of the 15th century it declined, due to a catastrophic flood of the

Vistula The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland. The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...

(1442). Furthermore, in 1444-45 it was ransacked by the unpaid royal soldiers, returning to Poland after the defeat in the

Battle of Varna The Battle of Varna took place on 10 November 1444 near Varna in eastern Bulgaria. The Ottoman Army under Sultan Murad II (who did not actually rule the sultanate at the time) defeated the Hungarian– Polish and Wallachian armies commanded ...

. As a result, Nowe Brzesko, while still a town, did not differ from local villages. Artisans were few, and

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

s were not organized. In 1522, King Zygmunt Stary ordered local authorities to mark boundaries of Nowe Brzesko, and create a street system, together with a market place. Town’s residents were in constant conflict with

abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. Th ...

s from Hebdów, who tried to get rid of their privileges. In the late 16th century, the population of Nowe Brzesko was app. 1,000. The town slowly developed, but wars of the mid-17th century (see

Swedish invasion of Poland The Deluge ( pl, potop szwedzki, lt, švedų tvanas) was a series of mid-17th-century military campaigns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. In a wider sense it applies to the period between the Khmelnytsky Uprising of 1648 and the Truce ...

) completely destroyed it and decimated the population. Polish, Swedish, Tatar and Transilvanian soldiers stayed here, robbing and stealing. Poverty and hunger were common, and the population declined by 50%. Furthermore, conflicts with the Hebdów abbots did not end, and residents of the town were forced to work for the abbey (see

Serfdom Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which develop ...

). In 1761, a group of inhabitants rebelled against the authority of the abbot, and asked King

Stanisław August Poniatowski Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarc ...

to support them. In the late 18th century (see

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

), Nowe Brzesko was annexed by the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central- Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

(1795). In 1815, it became part of the Russian-controlled

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. I ...

. In 1818, the abbey was dissolved, and the town, with its 151 houses and 900 residents, became state property. Located away from main roads, near the border with Austrian

Galicia Galicia may refer to: Geographic regions * Galicia (Spain), a region and autonomous community of northwestern Spain ** Gallaecia, a Roman province ** The post-Roman Kingdom of the Suebi, also called the Kingdom of Gallaecia ** The medieval King ...

, the town lost its charter in 1869, becoming a village. In the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

, it belonged to Kielce Voivodeship. Nowe Brzesko once again became a town in 2011.

External links

Jewish Community in Nowe Brzesko
on Virtual Shtetl

References

{{Coord, 50, 8, 14, N, 20, 23, 5, E, region:PL_type:city, display=title Cities and towns in Lesser Poland Voivodeship Proszowice County Kraków Voivodeship (14th century – 1795) Kielce Governorate Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939)