torun

Other Definitions
torun (dest)

Toruń (pronounce: [:tɔruɲ], Kashubian: Torń, German Thorn, see also other names) is a city in northern Poland, on the Vistula river. It has 208,386 inhabitants (2004). One of the capitals of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodship (since 1999), previously the capital of the Toruń Voivodship (1975-1998) and the Pomeranian Voivodship (1921-1939), the city is located near the Geographic Center of Europe. The medieval town of Toruń is on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. The city of Toruń creates a bipolar agglomeration Bydgoszcz-Toruń with the city of Bydgoszcz, located only 30 km away. The 2 cities are gradually integrating. In 2003 the Medical Academy in Bydgoszcz joined Toruń University.

City name

Early documents record the city name as Thorn, Thorun (1226, 1466), Turon, Turun, Toron, Thoron, and after 15th century the Polish name: Toruń. Points of view diverge on the origin of Thorn/Toruń's name. There are several possible etymologies:

1) Founded by the Teutonic Knights nearby an old Polish village named "old Toruń", Thorn may be derived from the city of Toron, that was located in the Kingdom of Jerusalem during the Crusades.
2) It may come from a Polish word tor which means track (of the Vistula river). If this is true Toruń means town on the track
4) It may come from the personal name Toron and mean Toron's town
3) It may have been originally Tarnw (there are many such cities in Poland, tarnina = a kind of river plant), which was later Germanized into Thorn, and re-Polonized into Toruń.
5) It may come from the Gothic god Thor

However, others claim that neither name Toruń nor Thorn has any etymological meaning. (reference: Professor Jan Miodek) The Teutonic Knights usually spelled the city's name as Thorun, and later when the city was a royal city subject to Polish Kings, the Latin documents and coins usually spelled Thorun, Thorunium, civitas Thorunensis or civitas Torunensis. Later it was spelled Thorn, and after the second world war the official name was changed to Toruń when the city became part of Poland.

History

Toruń was a small settlement in Chelmno Land (Ziemia Chelminska), a western part of Mazovia. in 1266 it was awarded by the duke Conrad of Mazovia as a fief to the Teutonic Knights to be a safeguard against the heathen Prussians. The Teutonic Knights built a castle there (1230-31), and the settlement acquired town rights in 1233, relocating from its original site to what is called today "Old Town" in 1236. The city soon became an important medieval trade center, and a member of the Hanseatic League. In 1263, Franciscan monks settled in Toruń, and they were followed in 1239 by Dominicans. In 1264 the neighboring Toruń New Town was founded. It was a separate town until 1454, when the old and new cities were amalgamated. During the 14th century, Toruń joined the Hanseatic League.

1440 The Prussian nobility and cities led by Toruń, Elblag and Gdansk (German:Danzig) formed the Prussian Confederation.
1454 the cities of Prussia rose up against the Teutonic Knights: Toruń accepted the sovereignty of the Polish crown in return for recognition of its city priviliges.
1466 The Thirteen Years' War and uprisings of Prussian cities end with the Second Treaty of Thorn, in which the Teutonic Order ceded sovereignty over western Prussia to Casimir IV of Poland.
With the Reformation the city became mostly Protestant.
1793 the city city became a part of the Kingdom of Prussia.
1807 under Napoleon the city became a part of the Grand Duchy of Warsaw.
1814 the city returned to the Kingdom of Prussia.
1871 the city became, along with the rest of Prussia, part of the German Empire.
1919 After World War I, under the Treaty of Versailles, the city became part of Poland, becoming the capital of the province of Pomeranian Voivodship.
1939 The city became German, and part of Danzig-West Prussia.
1945 the city became Polish after the borders were redrawn under the Potsdam Agreement reached at the end of World War II, Toruń is now located close to the geographic centre of Poland.