Stęszew

History

Stęszew was once an important stop in a trade route from Silesia. In 1370 king Casimir III the Great granted the settlement city rights. It was a private town of Polish nobility, administratively located in the Poznań County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. The town developed rapidly until the Swedish Deluge and Seven Years' War. Eventually, in 1793, Stęszew became part of the Prussian Partition of Poland after the Second Partition of Poland. In 1799 the town was sold by Countess Dorota Jabłonowska to Prince William I of the Netherlands. The Polish resistance was active in Stęszew. The leaders of the local unit of the Narodowa Organizacja Bojowa organization were arrested by the Germans in October and November 1941, and then sentenced to death and executed the following year. In January 1945, a German-perpetrated death march of prisoners of various nationalities from the dissolved camp in Żabikowo to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp passed through the town. The liberation of Stęszew and neighbouring villages took place in January 1945.

Geography

Stęszew is situated on the Samica Stęszewska River. There are three lakes within the town limits: Dębno, Bochenek and Lipno.

Most-observed species

• Eurasian Magpie

  Pica pica (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,977
• Great Tit

  Parus major Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,628
• Hooded Crow

  Corvus cornix Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,512
• Eurasian Blue Tit

  Cyanistes caeruleus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,343
• Common Wood-Pigeon

  Columba palumbus Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  2,338
• Western Jackdaw

  Coloeus monedula (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  2,183
• Rock Pigeon

  Columba livia J.F.Gmelin, 1789 · Aves
  2,180
• Eurasian Blackbird

  Turdus merula Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  1,979

Most recent

• M 4.3 — 2026-08-12
  5 km N of Polkowice, Poland
• M 3.9 — 2026-07-18
  4 km N of Polkowice, Poland
• M 4 — 2026-07-18
  0 km E of Polkowice, Poland
• M 4.9 — 2026-07-11
  2 km W of Polkowice, Poland
• M 4.2 — 2026-05-03
  6 km E of Radwanice, Poland
• M 4.2 — 2026-01-21
  5 km E of Polkowice, Poland