GNIEZNO CIVITAS

Gniezno has been selected by Roberto Amati in relation to the real history of european integration, then enlisted in the CITY OR CIVITAS category, accompanied by own fact SHEET useful to the comprehension, completed of historical MAPS AND IMAGES or with a direct linking to the related Blog contents dedicated to the the aeternitas and the future of Europe.

Gniezno is one of the most ancient cities of the history of European integration, signed in great part by Christianity. Founded on 7 hills including the Lech Hill, which is the location of the Gniezno Cathedral, in the middle of 5 lakes (Winiary, Jelonek, Świętokrzyskie, Koszyk, Zacisze), in the site of first settlements of the Slavs arrived in VIII century A.D. led by Lech (brother of Czech and Rus according to legends): he named that place Gniezno (from Polish language) in commemoration and adopted the white eagle as coat-of-arms of the city. Considered a sacred site to the pagan religion, there was founded an independent Duchy of Polans in 940 A.D. on the Lech Hill, surrounded by some fortified suburbs and open settlements that became one of the main fortresses of the early Piast rulers: after the baptism of Mieszko I Duke of Poland, the first converted to Christianity once married to the daughter of Saint Boleslao King of Bohemia, founder of the Archibishopric of Prague, his son Duke Bolesław I 'said the brave' deposited the remains of the patron Saint Adalbert in a church newly built on the Hill, that became the seat of the Gniezno's Archibishopric founded in 1000 A.D., when hosted a congress and the emperor of the Reich empire Otto III who established bishoprics in Kołobrzeg (Pomerania), Wrocław (Silesia), Kraków (Lesser Poland) and Poznań (Greater Poland), all depending from the Gniezno centre.

Then Gniezo was eleved as capital of the Regna of Poland and its Cathedral witnessed the royal coronations of 3 kings since 1025 A.D. in the night of Christmas, before the city was captured, plundered and destroyed by the Bohemians that pushed the Polish rulers to move their capital to Kraków, while the archepiscopal cathedral was reconstructed by the king Bolesław II 'said the Generous', when crowned here in 1076 A.D.. Since then Gniezno evolved as a religious seat of the eastern part of Greater Poland and in XIII century A.D. municipal autonomy was granted by the kings as seat of new coronations when the crown passed to Premyslid dinasty. Then an administrative reform eleved Gniezno as royal city and county capital until 1768 A.D.. Meantime it was destroyed again by the Teutonic Knights in 1331 A.D. but soon rebuilt by the King Casimir III 'said the Great', while during the reign of King Władysław II Jagiełło was confirmed its status of 'capital of Christianity in Poland' and the archbishops of Gniezno given the title of 'Primate of Poland'. Then Gniezno remained one of the major cities of Poland even when the king Władysław IV of Vasa dinasty confirmed the old privileges of Gniezno, as centre of the catholics in East Europe!

Gniezo was devastated during the Swedish invasion wars of 17th/18th centuries A.D. and by a plague in 1708 A.D., that caused depopulation and economic decline: but the city was soon revived becoming the capital of the Gniezno Voivodeship within the Greater Poland Province and Gniezno remained one of the main cultural centres of the Krone Lithuania-Poland, seat of the 11th Polish Infantry Regiment and 1st Polish National Cavalry Brigade until the dissolution of the state in 1792 A.D. when the city was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and renamed Gnesen. During the Napoleonic Wars a Polish Infantry Regiment was formed in Gniezno and fighted aside the Emperor, so that the city was included in the the Duchy of Warsaw, but occupied by the Russian army and returned to Prussia in the 1815 Congress of Vienna.

At the end of the First World War, Gniezo became part of the First Polish Republic and its citizen-soldiers joined the Polish army fighting the Bolsheviks during the Polish–Soviet War. During the invasion of Poland which started the Second World War, Gniezno was captured by Germans troops in September 1939 A.D. and local Poles were subjected to arrests, expulsions and mass executions, while Nazi troops murdered several hundred inhabitants. After, the city was seized by the Red Army in January 1945 A.D. and the Soviets fought the Polish underground and deported its members deep into the Soviet Union. But the city itself was not seriously damaged during the war and subsequently restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism that happened after the visit to Gniezno by the polish Pope John Paul II in 1979 A.D.. During his second visit, celebrations took place on the millennial anniversary of the death of St. Adalbert, with the participation of presidents of 7 European countries and hundreds thousands pilgrims from wherever in the world.

Today Gniezno is a medium-size city in Poland even if it has been the first historical capital of country and one of its main cities, seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese (diecezja Gniezno) and primate of Poland, making the city the country's ecclesiastical capital: its Cathedral is among the most important historically and ancient churches in Europe, restored by Wojtila Pope for his personal secretar Cardinal Józef Glemp named archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw. The Old Town, the Museum of the Origins of the Polish State and the Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Adalbert with the 'Gniezno Doors' (one of the most important works of Romanesque art in Poland) as well as the coffin of patron, are the main touristic attractions of Gniezo, together with the Gothic-Baroque Holy Trinity church, the Franciscan church and monastery, the Gothic churchs of Saint John the Baptist of Saint Lawrence of Saint Michael Archangel and of Blessed Michał Kozal, and the Monument of King Bolesław I.

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