Witkowo () is a town in Gniezno County,

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. The province is named after the region called Greater Poland (''Wielkopolska'' ). The modern province includes most of this historic re ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, located southeast of

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

History

Witkowo was first mentioned in a document from 1363. It was a private village of

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Gniezno County in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. In 1676, it 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 ...

. Following the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, which started

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 ...

in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany until 1945. Local units of the Grey Ranks and ''Wielkopolska Organizacja Wojskowa'' Polish resistance organizations were founded already in 1939, and the latter became part of the larger ''Wojskowa Organizacja Ziem Zachodnich'' organization in 1940. Klemens Jan Grygiel, commander of the local unit of the Grey Ranks, and Edward Paulus, founder of the local unit of the Union of Armed Struggle, were arrested by the Germans in mid-1942, and eventually sentenced to death and executed in

Rawicz Rawicz (; ) is a town in west-central Poland with 21,398 inhabitants as of 2004. It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999); previously it was in Leszno Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Rawicz County. History The ...

the following year.

Cuisine

Witkowo is one of the production sites of the Greater Poland liliput cheese ('' ser liliput wielkopolski''), a traditional regional Polish

cheese Cheese is a type of dairy product produced in a range of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk (usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats or sheep). During prod ...

, protected as a

traditional food Traditional foods are foods and Dish (food), dishes that are passed on through generations or which have been consumed for many generations. Traditional foods and dishes are traditional in nature, and may have a historic precedent in a national ...

by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Gniezno County