Kujawy – Urban Gmina Aleksandrow-Kujawski History
The city of Aleksandrow – Kujawski is located on the edge of the Vistula River, in the area which is called Pradolina (geographical region of Poland between Warsaw and Berlin) that forms the valley of Torun and the plains of Inowrocław (Kujawy).The oldest traces of settlements in the vicinity of Aleksandrow are linked to the cultures of Neolithic people from about 5 thousand years BC. The amber route crossed near today’s city with passage across on Vistula and other highway roads.
The beginnings of the cities settlements were related to the construction of the border stations and the railway line (Warsaw-Bydgoszcz) in the lands of Białe Błota (later called Trojanów after the owner with the same name) at a distance of 2 km from the border near the Tążyny River. The railway station was built in 1860 and soon became the seat of the areas Chamber of Commerce, telephone and mail centers, as well as the facilities for handling international iron route passengers. The station was put into use in the year 1862, with an additional railway line branch in Ciechocinek (from 1867 onwards) to help facilitate the dynamic development of the frontier station in Aleksandrów.
On February 8,1863, at the railway station, conspirators were captured with secret documents that revealed the conclusion of January’s so-called “Alvensleben Convention”, which was the joint Russo-Prussian resolution to suppress the Polish uprising. This event caused an international diplomatic scandal.
In September 1879, a meeting (Tsar’s Peace) between the two relatives and rulers, Tsar Alexander II and German Emperor Wilhelm I, took place in large parts of the station. On the occasion of Tsar Alexander’s residence, an Orthodox church was built. (There is more to this sentence but I could not understand what it meant. Original Polish Sentence: Z okazji pobytu cara do nazwy Aleksandrów dodano “Przygraniczny”, wzniesiono nieistniejącą już cerkiew prawosławną pw.).
A chapel was built for the Polish railway. In 1907, the chapel was then converted and
consecrated as the St. Aleksandr Newski church.
Another tourist attraction is the nineteenth-century Trojanowski Palace, along with its’ historic park. The settlement was created with streets parallel to the train tracks and used the American naming model with streets numbering from First to Seventh.
The period of the First World War pointed to a civic rights movement in November 1916 and patriotic activities of the members of the Polish Military Organization. After the war resolution, the Aleksandrow station (since 1919, Kujawski) convulsed with about 30-thousand refugees and prisoners of war.
During the Polish-Soviet War (1919-1921), an internment camp was established that housed about 3.5 thousand Ukrainian-Soviet soldiers. The camp was also who visited by the Cossack Commander Symon Petliura. Remembrances of them can be found at the Cossack-Barrow grave site since 1921, it was renovated in 1993 and is now undoubtedly a tourist attraction and place of the annual ecumenical prayers. A national and religious mosaic was formed by the city of Aleksandrow – Kujawski entitled, “Five Cultures and Six Nations ” (Poles, Germans, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews and Gypsies). The recovery of Poland’s borders and independence in 1918, contributed to the stagnation of the cities growth, despite the fact that since 1932, it became the district headquarters of Nieszawa (since 1949, the district headquarters of Aleksandrow). During the Second World War Aleksandrów – Kujawski lost the rank of city. The total population of the Jews was annihilated, the synagogue and a local Jewish cemetery were destroyed. This also included the extermination of Poles and soon after the war the local German population was also removed.
Today’s Aleksandrow – Kujawski is inhabited by 12.5 thousand people and occupies an area of 717 hectares. It is the largest city in Powiat Aleksandrow, the seat of local government and has the rural district offices and institutions.
Our city have been home to, among others, poet and prose writer Edward Stachura and writer Maria Danilewicz Zielinska, who was the founder and director of the Polish Library in London for 30 years.
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