Cekcyn (Polish pronunciation: ) is a village in

Tuchola County __NOTOC__ Tuchola County ( pl, powiat tucholski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local ...

Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as Cuiavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship or simply Kujawsko-Pomorskie, or Kujawy-Pomerania Province ( pl, województwo kujawsko-pomorskie ) is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divid ...

, in north-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Cekcyn. It lies approximately east of

Tuchola Tuchola (german: Tuchel; csb, Tëchòlô) is a town in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland. The Pomeranian town, which is the seat of Tuchola County, had a population of 13,418 . Geographical location Tuchola lies about n ...

and north of

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

. Cekcyn is located in the middle of the Tuchola Forest (''Bory Tucholskie'') in historic

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 t ...

. Around the buildings there are few lakes with the biggest one - Wielkie Jezioro Cekcyńskie. The word 'bory' means woods riddled with conifers, mainly pines. Visitors admit the pine forests are everywhere around. One of the most recognizable buildings in the centre is a church. This Neogothic church was erected in 1869. During summer vacation there is a very important event for the whole community. It is the holiday of administrative district Cekcyn, which has become a new tradition, and a way to promote this village.

History

Cekcyn historically was also named ''Ciechocinek'' and ''Ciechocin Polski''. In 1301 King Wenceslaus II of Poland enfeoffed the village to his chancellor Piotr Święca. Later on, in the early modern period, it was a royal village of the

Polish Crown The Crown of the Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Korona Królestwa Polskiego; Latin: ''Corona Regni Poloniae''), known also as the Polish Crown, is the common name for the historic Late Middle Ages territorial possessions of the King of Poland, includi ...

, administratively located in the Tuchola County in the

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomorskie Region, or Pomerania Province ( Polish: ''Województwo pomorskie'' ; (Kashubian: ''Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò'' ), is a voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The ...

. During the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

), in 1940 and 1943–1944, the Germans carried out expulsions of Poles, whose farms were then handed over to

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

as part of the ''

Lebensraum (, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Impe ...

'' policy. Three Polish families were enslaved as forced labour to serve Germans in Cekcyn and another nearby village.Wardzyńska, p. 77 In 1942 the Germans renamed the village to ''Seehaupten'' to erase traces of Polish origin. After the war the historic name ''Cekcyn'' was restored.

References

Cekcyn {{Tuchola-geo-stub