Oksywie (german: Oxhöft, csb, Òksëwiô) is a

neighbourhood A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...

of the city of

Gdynia Gdynia ( ; ; german: Gdingen (currently), (1939–1945); csb, Gdiniô, , , ) is a city in northern Poland and a seaport on the Baltic Sea coast. With a population of 243,918, it is the 12th-largest city in Poland and the second-largest in th ...

, Pomeranian Voivodeship, northern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. Formerly a separate settlement, it is older than Gdynia by several centuries.

Etymology

Both the Polish and then German name of the town, as well as various other names for it used in the past (among them Oxsiua, Oxive, Okciua, Oxue, Oxivia, Oxiuia, Oxiwia, Oxiew and Oxivija) stem from a Scandinavian word ''oxihoved'' meaning '' oxen head''.

History

In the pre-historic times the Oksywie Heights, overlooking the

Bay of Gdańsk A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a gulf, sea, sound, or bight. A cove is a small, circular bay with a nar ...

, was settled by the members of the Oksywie culture, named after the burial places located just outside Oksywie. With time the area was settled by Slavs and became part of

Pomerania Pomerania ( pl, Pomorze; german: Pommern; Kashubian: ''Pòmòrskô''; sv, Pommern) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The western part of Pomerania belongs to ...

. Christianised relatively early, the settlement housed the first Catholic shrine erected in 1224 by Świętopełk,

Duke of Pomerania This is a list of the duchies and dukes of Pomerania. Dukes of the Slavic Pomeranian tribes (All Pomerania) The lands of Pomerania were firstly ruled by local tribes, who settled in Pomerania around the 10th and 11th centuries. Non-dynastic ...

. Throughout the ages, the settlement shared much of its history with the surrounding region and with the nearby town of Gdańsk (German: Danzig), which developed into a regional capital. After the

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, when

regained the area after 123 years of partitions, the town of Oksywie became the first base of the Polish Navy. It served this role until the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. During the Polish Defensive War of 1939, the area was the battlefield of the 9 days long

battle of Kępa Oksywska The Battle of Kępa Oksywska took place in the Oksywie Heights outside the Polish city of Gdynia between 10 and 19 September 1939. The battle, fought by the Polish Army and the German Wehrmacht, was part of the Polish September Campaign duri ...

, in which the Polish forces under Col. Stanisław Dąbek defended the area between September 10 and September 19. During the last stages of the war, the area yet again became a battlefield, this time between March 28 and April 5, 1945, when the area of the Oksywie Heights became the last stand of the surrounded German forces in Pomerania. The borough of Oksywie is notable as the seat of the Academy of the Polish Navy. It was also the namesake of ORP Oksywie. {{Coord, 54.5480, N, 18.5446, E, source:wikidata, display=title Gdynia