Cedynia

History

Largely depopulated during the Migration Period, the first Slavic settlement came into existence in the 8th century, when a gród fortification was erected in the area. Around 967, it became part of the emerging Polish state. According to the Cedynia website, the "Name of city appears in documents under oldest written records already in the year 972 as Cidini, in 1187 as Zedin and Cedene, in 1240 as Ceden. " On 24 June 972, the first historically recorded battle of the Polan dukes, the Battle of Cedynia, took place at this location: the Piast duke Mieszko I of Poland and his brother Czcibor defeated the invading forces of the Saxon count Odo I, who then ruled as a margrave in the Saxon Eastern March (Lusatia). Information about this battle is found both in the chronicles by Thietmar of Merseburg and in the Gesta principum Polonorum by Gallus Anonymus. After Emperor Otto II intervened, a peace was reached at the Imperial Diet in Quedlinburg the next year. Under Mieszko's son Bolesław the name Poland was used for the first time. The Battle of Cedynia was the first of Mieszko and Bolesław's numerous battles that they took up in their conquest attempts in the Polabian border territories soon after they received positions as dukes, mainly in the German–Polish War that lasted from 1002 until the 1018 Peace of Bautzen. Following the death of Bolesław III Wrymouth and the fragmentation of Poland, Cedynia was part of the Duchy of Greater Poland. Together with Santok and Drezdenko, it remained the seat of a (Greater) Polish castellany on the Pomeranian border in the 12th and 13th centuries. With adjacent Lubusz Land in the south, the town became a part of the Neumark acquisitions of the Ascanian margraves John I and of Otto III of Brandenburg in 1248/52. In 1278 the…

Geography

Cedynia lies in an area that formed part of historic regions of Pomerania and Greater Poland, before later being part of Neumark. It is situated close to the Oder river, which forms the Germany–Poland border; it thereby is the westernmost town in Poland (neighbouring Osinów Dolny lies even further to the west, right on the German border, but is classified as a village). A road border crossing leads to the German town of Bad Freienwalde in the southwest. The town gives its name to an extended protected area known as Cedynia Landscape Park.

Most-observed species

• Common Crane

  Grus grus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  662
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  577
• Graylag Goose

  Anser anser (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  567
• Mute Swan

  Cygnus olor (J.F.Gmelin, 1789) · Aves
  559
• White-tailed Eagle

  Haliaeetus albicilla (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  524
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  506
• Gray/Purple Heron

  Ardea cinerea Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  497
• corn bunting

  Emberiza calandra Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  483