Ostromecko is a village in the administrative district of

Gmina Dąbrowa Chełmińska __NOTOC__ Gmina Dąbrowa Chełmińska is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Bydgoszcz County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Dąbrowa Chełmińska, which lies approximately east of Byd ...

, within

Bydgoszcz County __NOTOC__ Bydgoszcz County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 as a result of the Polish local government reforms passe ...

Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship * Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) in Poland. * Kuyavian-Pomeranian is one of 13 Polish constituency of the European Parliament. * Kuyavian-Pomeranian Regional Assembly is the regional legislature of t ...

, in north-central Poland. It lies south-west of Dąbrowa Chełmińska, east of

Bydgoszcz Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its bank (geography), left-bank tributary, the Brda (river), Brda, the strategic location of Byd ...

, and north-west of

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

History

The village was first mentioned in a document of 1222. Ostromecko was a fortified stronghold protecting a trade route connecting the

Teutonic Order The Teutonic Order is a religious order (Catholic), Catholic religious institution founded as a military order (religious society), military society in Acre, Israel, Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. The Order of Brothers of the German House of Sa ...

's cities of Bromberg with Culm and the

Baltic Baltic may refer to: Peoples and languages *Baltic languages, a subfamily of Indo-European languages, including Lithuanian, Latvian and extinct Old Prussian *Balts (or Baltic peoples), ethnic groups speaking the Baltic languages and/or originatin ...

coast. Ostromecko was granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

in 1750. It was later located in the

Chełmno Voivodeship The Chełmno Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland since 1454/1466 until the Partitions of Poland in 1772/1793. Its capital was at Chełmno. Together wi ...

of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1772, it was recovered by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

in the

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

. In 1807, it was briefly regained by the Poles and included within the short-lived Napoleonic

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

. After the duchy's dissolution in 1815, it was returned to Prussia. Following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Poland regained control of Ostromecko. During the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

(

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

), Ostromecko was said to be one of the sites of executions of

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

, carried out by the Germans in 1939 as part of the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

''. This is highly disputed by German historians and by archival records.

Sights

The landmark of Ostromecko is the palaces and park ensemble, which contains the Andrzej Szwalbe Collection of Historical Pianos, one of two largest such collections in Poland. There is also the

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

Saint Nicholas church and the Marian Forest nature reserve.

Nature Reserve

The Marian Forest Nature Reserve - a forest reserve with an area of 31.8 hectares, located in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, is located in the Toruń Forest District, on the northern edge of the village of Ostromecko. It is one of the earliest established and next nature reserves. The beginnings of landscape protection of today's reserve date back to the 19th century. The forested slope of the Vistula Valley was called the ''Maria Park'', from the name of Marta Matilda Maria Alvensleben-Schönborn (1854-1915) - heir to the estate of Ostromecko and the wife of Albrecht von Alvensleben (1840-1928). A road was made on its area with bridges, along which birchwood benches were set. The reserve was created to protect diverse forest complexes overgrowing steep canyons and the Vistula valley steam: from the ash-alder forest through the subcontinental forest, fertile low beech forest to mixed continental forest. This area also has high landscape values, due to the large denivelation of the terrain, spring and groundwater exudates.

Gallery

File:Ostromecko Palac Mostowskich 2023.jpg, Old palace File:Ostromecko palac Sch 38 10-2013.jpg, New palace File:Ostromecko Parafia 2023.jpg, Saint Nicholas church File:Pomnik Wolnosci Ostromecko.jpg, Polish Independence Monument

References

{{Gmina Dąbrowa Chełmińska Populated places on the Vistula Sites of Nazi war crimes in Poland Villages in Bydgoszcz County