Żychlin

History

The village of Żychlin has existed at least since 1309. In 1331 it was captured by the Teutonic Knights, but shortly after was restored to Poland. It received city rights before 1397. Until the 19th century, the town was a private property. At the end of the Middle Ages, Żychlin was the place where away sessions of the Łęczyca town court took place. Żychlin was a private town, administratively located in the Orłów County in the Łęczyca Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. In the second half of the sixteenth century, the city suffered from a major fire disaster. The reconstruction was slow and even the privilege of fairs awarded to the king did not significantly affect the city's significant development. In 1790 Żychlin had 350 inhabitants and 68 houses.}} In the late-18th-century Partitions of Poland, the town was annexed by Prussia. In 1807 it was regained by Poles and included with the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw, and in 1815 it fell to the Russian Partition of Poland. In the 19th century the population of the town increased significantly. The town was briefly liberated by local Polish insurgents during the January Uprising in 1863. 1921 saw the creation of electric plants by Zygmunt Okoniewski. Over time, due to the new electromechanical plant, the city grew and gained importance among the surrounding towns. In 1924 Żychlin regained its municipal rights. Expelled Poles were initially held in a transit camp in Łódź for three weeks, and then people aged 15–24 were deported to forced labour in Germany, and the rest were deported to the General Government.