Bledzew (german: Blesen) is a village and former town in Międzyrzecz County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western 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 Bledzew.

Geography

The settlement lies on the western rim of the

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

historic region on the left bank of the Obra river, a tributary of the Warta, and is surrounded by numerous lakes and extended forests. It is located approximately north-west of Międzyrzecz, south-east of

Gorzów Wielkopolski Gorzów Wielkopolski (; german: Landsberg an der Warthe) often abbreviated to Gorzów Wlkp. or simply Gorzów, is a city in western Poland, on the Warta river. It is the second largest city in the Lubusz Voivodeship with 120,087 inhabitants (Decemb ...

, and north of Zielona Góra. The village has a population of 1,300.

History

The settlement was established in the 1230s by the Piast duke Władysław Odonic, then ruling over the Polish duchy of

. It became a border town after the adjacent Lubusz Land in the west had passed to the Margraves of Brandenburg in 1248 as part of their '' Neumark'' territories. In the early 14th century, the Ascanian margrave Waldemar occupied the Bledzew area and granted it to the

Cistercian The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...

monks at Zemsko; it nevertheless was reconquered by the Polish king Władysław I the Elbow-high in 1326 and incorporated into the Poznań Voivodeship of the Polish Crown. After the Cistercian monks moved their seat to Bledzew, the citizens were vested with town privileges according to Magdeburg law by King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1458, confirmed by his successor John I Albert in 1493. In the course of the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, Bledzew was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and from 1815 incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Posen. The Cistercian abbey was

secularised In sociology, secularization (or secularisation) is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward non-religious values and secular institutions. The ''secularization thesis'' expresses the ...

in 1835. After World War II with the implementation of the Oder-Neisse line it returned to the

Republic of 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 populous ...

and the remaining German population was expelled.

External links

Jewish Community in Bledzew
on Virtual Shtetl * Mühlenhamster - Bledzew -Tworzenie projektu z myślą o dzieciach - ein Projekt für Kinder entsteht...

References

{{Authority control Bledzew