Giżycko

Sister cities

• Silkeborg
• Neumünster
• Trakai
• Ruda Śląska

History

The first known settlements in the area of today's Giżycko were recorded in Roman times by Tacitus in his Germania and are connected to Amber Road in vicinity of which Giżycko was located. A defensive settlement of the Baltic Prussians was known to exist in the area, and in IX was recorded as being ruled by king known as Izegup or Jesegup. and after the subsequent outbreak of the Thirteen Years’ War in 1454, Łuczany sided with Poland. The settlement was captured by the Teutonic Knights in 1455, but the Poles recaptured it the next year. After the peace treaty signed in Toruń in 1466 it became part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Order, until the dissolution of the Teutonic state in 1525. The settlement near the castle received town privileges, with a coat of arms and seal, in 1612, while part of the Duchy of Prussia (under Polish suzerainty until 1701). The first mayor was Paweł Rudzki. The Polish name of the town, used by its overwhelmingly Polish population, at the time was Łuczany. Lötzen became part of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and was made part of the newly established province of East Prussia in 1773. In 1709/10 the plague claimed 800 victims, only 119 inhabitants survived. In the 19th century, a new Lutheran church based on design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel was erected in the centre of the town. Lötzen became part of the German Empire in 1871 during the Prussian-led unification of Germany. In June 1807, the Polish corps of generals Józef Zajączek and Jan Henryk Dąbrowski were stationed in the town. In 1844–1848 the Boyen Fortress, a fortress named after the Prussian war-minister Hermann von Boyen, was built on a small landtongue between lake Mamry (Mauersee) and lake Niegocin (Löwentinsee). This fortress is one of the largest and best…