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{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Nisko
| image_flag = POL Nisko flag.svg
| image_shield = POL gmina Nisko COA.svg
| image_skyline = City center of Nisko, Podkarpacie.jpg
| image_caption = Town center
| pushpin_map = Poland
| pushpin_label_position = top
| subdivision_type = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
| subdivision_name = {{POL}}
| subdivision_type1 = [[Voivodeships of Poland|Voivodeship]]
| subdivision_name1 = {{flag|Podkarpackie Voivodeship|name=Subcarpathian}}
| subdivision_type2 = [[List of Polish counties|County]]
| subdivision_name2 = [[Nisko County|Nisko]]
| subdivision_type3 = [[Gmina]]
| subdivision_name3 = [[Gmina Nisko|Nisko]]
| leader_party = [[Law and Justice|PiS]]
| leader_title = Mayor
| leader_name = Konrad Krzyżak
| established_title = First mentioned
| established_date = 1439
| established_title3 = Town rights
| established_date3 = 1933
| area_total_km2 = 61.02
| population_as_of = 2021
| population_total = 15048
| population_density_km2 = auto
| timezone = [[Central European Time|CET]]
| utc_offset = +1
| timezone_DST = [[Central European Summer Time|CEST]]
| utc_offset_DST = +2
| coordinates = {{coord|50|31|12|N|22|8|22|E|region:PL|display=title,inline}}
| postal_code_type = Postal code
| postal_code = 37–400
| blank_name = [[Polish car number plates|Car plates]]
| blank_info = RNI
| website = {{URL|www.nisko.pl}}
}}
'''Nisko''' {{IPA|pl|ˈɲiskɔ|pron}} is a town in [[Nisko County]], [[Podkarpackie Voivodeship|Subcarpathian Voivodeship]], [[Poland]]{{TERYT}} on the [[San (river)|San River]], with a population of 15,048 inhabitants as of 31 December 2021.<ref name="GUS">{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/PUBL_P_population_size_structure_31_12_2008.pdf |title=Population. Size and structure by territorial division |date=2 June 2009 |publisher=Central Statistical Office |location=Warsaw |access-date=22 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110926221330/http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/PUBL_P_population_size_structure_31_12_2008.pdf |archive-date=26 September 2011 }}</ref> Together with neighbouring city of [[Stalowa Wola]], Nisko creates a small [[Urban area|agglomeration]].

==History==
[[File:Nisko - sanktuarium św. Józefa - widok z wiaduktu.jpg|thumb|left|[[Saint Joseph Church (Nisko)|Saint Joseph church]]]]
Nisko was first mentioned in a document dated 15 April 1439, in which King [[Władysław III of Poland|Władysław III of Varna]] handed the villages of Nysky, Zaoszicze and Pyelaskowicze to a local nobleman. Furthermore, Nisko was also mentioned by [[Jan Długosz]], in his work ''Liber beneficiorum dioecesis Cracoviensis''. The establishment of the village was probably the result of catastrophic [[Second Mongol invasion of Poland|Mongol Invasion of Poland]], which decimated the population of [[Lesser Poland]]. Residents of burned villages and towns resettled in the areas north of the enormous [[Sandomierz Forest]]. Probably in the second half of the 13th century, a village was established on a hill near the [[San (river)|San river]].<ref name="nisko.pl">{{cite web|url=http://www.nisko.pl/readarticle.php?article_id=5 |title=Nisko Official Website |publisher=UGiM Nisko |year=1999–2008 |via=Internet Archive |url-status=unfit |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080813210923/http://www.nisko.pl/readarticle.php?article_id=5 |archive-date=13 August 2008 }}</ref> Nisko was a royal village administratively located in the Sandomierz County in the [[Sandomierz Voivodeship]] in the [[Lesser Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Lesser Poland Province]].<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Województwo sandomierskie w drugiej połowie XVI wieku; Cz.1, Mapy, plany|year=1993|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Polish Scientific Publishers PWN|Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN]]|page=4}}</ref>

Due to the location on the edges of the forest, local residents supported themselves by hunting and trade of timber, which was transported to other centers along the San and the [[Vistula]] waterways. In the 1570s, peasants from Nisko and other locations rebelled against the [[Starosta]] of [[Sandomierz]], Andrzej Firlej. In 1578, they met with King [[Stephen Báthory]], who stayed in [[Tarnogród]], asking him for justice. The king supported the peasants, urging Firlej to come to [[Warsaw]]. On 10 November 1583, Batory issued a bill, in which he backed demands of the peasants.<ref name="nisko.pl"/>

For centuries Nisko remained a small village, whose development was halted during the [[Deluge (history)|Swedish invasion of Poland]]. On 28 March 1656, [[Stefan Czarniecki]] fought here Swedish troops, which advanced towards [[Lwów]].

[[File:Pozdrowienie z Niska - stacya kolejowa. 1900 (70370606) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|[[Nisko railway station]], {{circa|1900}}]]
Following the [[First Partition of Poland]], Nisko was annexed by the [[Habsburg monarchy|Habsburg Empire]], and remained within Austrian [[Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria|Galicia]] until November 1918. In 1867 Count Eugene Kinsky bought the Nisko estate to give it to his daughter Countess Marie Kinsky of Wchinitz and Tettau as a wedding present, which took place in Vienna on 21 September 1868. From 1868 to 1912 under Count Oliver Rességuier de Miremont and his family, the village grew to become one of the largest estates in then Austrian Galicia. A railroad station, a hospital, a [[Saint Joseph Church (Nisko)|church]] (three in present-day Nisko), schools, factories, Austrian Army Base (currently Polish Army Base) and a palace (now used as a hospital building) were built. Most of these buildings are still in use. The village was also the capital of administration unit, Nisko County.<ref name="nisko.pl"/>

The [[Nisko railway station]] is in operation since 14 January 1900.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://podkarpackie.atlaskolejowy.pl/?id=baza&poz=2333|title=atlaskolejowy.pl|website=podkarpackie.atlaskolejowy.pl}}</ref>

===20th century===
[[File:Nisko - Starostwo. 1905-1915 (70371625) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|County council, ca 1905–1915]]
In 1914, when [[World War I]] began, many buildings in Nisko were destroyed by the [[Imperial Russian Army|Russian Army]], which attacked [[Austria-Hungary]]. In 1918, local Poles gained control over the government in Nisko and the village became part of the new-formed [[Second Polish Republic]]. In newly restored Poland, Nisko was the seat of a county in [[Lwów Voivodeship]], but remained a village until 20 October 1933. According to the [[1921 Polish census|1921 census]], it had a population of 4,749, 90.8% [[Polish people|Polish]] and 8.7% [[Jews|Jewish]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Skorowidz miejscowości Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej|volume=XIII|year=1924|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=Główny Urząd Statystyczny|page=30}}</ref> On 19 January 1937 in Warsaw, a bill was signed, which created Southern Works (Zaklady Poludniowe) – a large steel plant, part of the [[Central Industrial Region (Poland)|Central Industrial Region]]. On 20 March 1937, first pine trees were cut in a forest in the village of Pławo, a few kilometers north of Nisko. In two years, a brand new city of [[Stalowa Wola]] was established around the plant. It was a milestone in history of the town, because several projects were started in the area, such as a foundry and a power-plant in the forests on the western boundary of Nisko. The programme of industrialization was stopped with the [[invasion of Poland]] by [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Soviet Union]] in September 1939.

[[File:Nisko - tablica pamiątkowa na saktuarium św. Józefa-2.jpg|thumb|Memorial to local [[Home Army]] partisans killed and murdered in 1939–1956]]
Already in the early stages of [[World War II]], shortly after the German invasion of the town, the German ''[[Einsatzgruppen|Einsatzgruppe I]]'' entered the town to commit various [[Genocide of Poles by Nazi Germany|atrocities against the population]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|pages=58–59}}</ref> As part of the ''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'', on November 10, 1939, the Germans deceitfully gathered Polish teachers from the town and its surroundings for a supposed formal meeting, then arrested them and imprisoned them in [[Rzeszów]].<ref>Wardzyńska, p. 257</ref> During the war, Nisko became the focus of the Nazi German ''[[Nisko Plan|Nisko und Lublin Plan]]'' of forcible relocation of about 95,000 Jews from all over [[occupied Poland]] and from abroad in the name of German ''[[Lebensraum]]''. Chief architect of the [[Holocaust]], [[Adolf Eichmann]], set up a transit camp in Nisko, from which the deportees were to be expelled eastward.<ref name="Browning6/12">{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ewncj-TwLycC&pg=PA8| title=Nazi policy, Jewish workers, German killers | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=13 February 2000 | author=Christopher R. Browning | pages=6–12 | isbn=052177490X| author-link=Christopher R. Browning }}</ref> The town was an important center of the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance movement]], including the [[Home Army]] and [[Peasant Battalions|Bataliony Chłopskie]]. Since early 1940, underground Polish press was distributed in the town.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gruszczyński|first=Włodzimierz|year=2011|title=Odwet i Jędrusie|language=pl|location=[[Zagnańsk]]|page=19}}</ref> In March 1941, the Germans carried out mass arrests of resistance members involved in the distribution of Polish press in Nisko and other nearby towns.<ref>Gruszczyński, p. 38</ref> Arrested resistance members were then mostly imprisoned, interrogated and tortured in the local prison.<ref>Gruszczyński, p. 39</ref> The Polish resistance made an unsuccessful attempt to liberate the prisoners, after which the Germans deported the prisoners to the infamous [[Montelupi Prison|Montelupich prison]] in [[Kraków]], and then to the [[Auschwitz concentration camp]].<ref>Gruszczyński, p. 45-46</ref> In 1944–1945, the [[Red Army]] and the Soviet [[NKVD]] arrested here a number of Poles, executing members of [[Anti-communist resistance in Poland (1944–1953)|anti-communist resistance]].<ref name="nisko.pl"/>

==Education==
[[File:Nisko - Fontanna.JPG|thumb|''Plac Wolności'' ("Freedom Square") in the town center]]
* Wyższa Szkoła Informatyki i Zarządzania in [[Rzeszów]], branch in Nisko

==Entertainment==
The annual event, [[Dni Niska]] (Nisko Days), is held at the [[MKS Sokół Nisko Stadium|Municipal Stadium]] in Nisko.<ref>[https://nisko.eu/aktualnosci/1865-dni-niska-2018 Dni Niska 2018] (in Polish). Nisko.eu. Retrieved 31 January 2021.</ref>

==Sports==
* [[Sokół Nisko]] – a football team, playing in [[IV liga]]
* Amatorski Klub Sportowy "Orkan"
* Klub Sportowy "Zarzecze"
* LZS Podwolina – a football team, playing in [[klasa B]]
* Stowarzyszenie Klub Sportowy "Galena" Racławice

==Notable people==
* [[Friedrich von Ledebur]] (1900–1986), Austro-Hungarian officer and actor
* [[Jadwiga Damse]] (born 1947), Polish luger
* [[Jan Maria Gisges]] (1914–1983), Polish poet, prose writer and dramatist
* [[Witold Karaś]] (born 1951), former [[Poland national football team]] international

==Twin towns – sister cities==
{{See also|List of twin towns and sister cities in Poland}}
Nisko is [[Sister city|twinned]] with:<ref>{{cite web |title=Miasta Partnerskie |url=https://www.nisko.pl/samorzad/miasta-partnerskie|website=nisko.pl|publisher=Gmina Nisko|language=pl|access-date=2021-03-02}}</ref>
*{{flagicon|HUN}} [[Fehérgyarmat]], Hungary
*{{flagicon|GER}} [[Hecklingen]], Germany
*{{flagicon|UKR}} [[Horodok, Lviv Oblast|Horodok]], Ukraine
*{{flagicon|SVK}} [[Semerovo]], Slovakia

==See also==
* [[Jewish Cemetery, Nisko|Nisko Jewish Cemetery]]
* [[Nisko Plan]], German Nazi's "territorial solution to the [[Jewish question]]"
* [[Nisko railway station]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{cite web |url=http://www.stat.gov.pl/broker/access/prefile/listPreFiles.jspa |title=Central Statistical Office (GUS) |work=TERYT (National Register of Territorial Land Apportionment Journal) |date=1 September 2008 |language=pl |access-date=23 October 2008}}

{{Commons category|Nisko}}
{{Nisko}}
{{Nisko County}}
{{Gmina Nisko}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cities and towns in Subcarpathian Voivodeship]]
[[Category:Nisko County]]
[[Category:Holocaust locations in Poland]]