View source for Tuchola

{{see also|Tuchola, Greater Poland Voivodeship}}
{{Infobox settlement
| name = Tuchola
| image_flag = POL Tuchola flag.svg
| image_shield = POL Tuchola COA.svg
| image_skyline = Plac Wolności w Tucholi.jpg
| image_caption = Old Town (''Stare Miasto'')
| pushpin_map = Poland
| pushpin_label_position = bottom
| subdivision_type = [[List of sovereign states|Country]]
| subdivision_name = {{POL}}
| subdivision_type1 = [[Voivodeships of Poland|Voivodeship]]
| subdivision_name1 = [[Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Kuyavian-Pomeranian]]
| subdivision_type2 = [[Powiat|County]]
| subdivision_name2 = [[Tuchola County|Tuchola]]
| subdivision_type3 = [[Gmina]]
| subdivision_name3 = [[Gmina Tuchola|Tuchola]]
| established_title = First mentioned
| established_date = 1287
| leader_title = Mayor
| leader_name = Tadeusz Henryk Kowalski
| area_total_km2 = 17.69
| population_as_of = 2024
| population_total = 12843
| 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|53|36|N|17|51|E|region:PL|display=title,inline}}
| postal_code_type = Postal code
| postal_code = 89-500,89-501
| blank_name = [[Polish car number plates|Car plates]]
| blank_info = CTU
| website = http://www.tuchola.pl
}}
'''Tuchola''' ({{IPA|pl|tuˈxɔla|-|Pl-Tuchola.ogg}}; {{langx|de|Tuchel}}; {{langx|csb|Tëchòlô}}) is a town in the [[Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship]] in northern [[Poland]].{{TERYT}} The [[Pomerania]]n town, which is the seat of [[Tuchola County]], had a population of 12,843 as of 31 December 2024.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ludność. Stan i struktura ludności oraz ruch naturalny w przekroju terytorialnym w 2024 r. (stan w dniu 31.12)|website=Główny Urząd Statystyczny [Statistics Poland]|language=pl|url=https://stat.gov.pl/obszary-tematyczne/ludnosc/ludnosc/ludnosc-stan-i-struktura-ludnosci-oraz-ruch-naturalny-w-przekroju-terytorialnym-w-2024-r-stan-w-dniu-31-12,6,38.html}}</ref>

== Geographical location ==
Tuchola lies about {{convert|50|km|0|abbr=off}} north of [[Bydgoszcz]],  close to the [[Tuchola Forests]].  Forest areas to the east and north of the town form the [[protected area]] of [[Tuchola Landscape Park]].

==History==

[[File:Skwer Św. Małgorzaty - pomnik patronki miasta Tuchola - panoramio.jpg|thumb|left|190px|Statue of Saint Margaret, the [[patron saint]] of Tuchola]]
Settlement around Tuchola dates from 980, while the town was first mentioned in 1287, when the local church was consecrated by the archbishop of Gniezno [[Jakub Świnka]].<ref name=tuch>{{cite web|url=https://www.tuchola.pl/strona-42-tuchola_przed_wiekami.html|title=Tuchola przed wiekami|website=Portal - Urząd Miejski Tuchola|access-date=11 February 2020|language=pl}}</ref> It was part of medieval [[Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385)|Poland]] since the establishment of the state in the 10th century, and during its fragmentation it was ruled by the dukes of [[Gdańsk Pomerania]]. The place was one of the strongholds of the count of [[Nowe]] [[Swienca family|Peter Swienca]], who owned a fortified domicile in the area. In 1330 Tuchola came into possession of the [[Teutonic Order]]. It received [[Chełmno law]] in 1346 from [[Heinrich Dusemer]], the [[Grand Master of the Teutonic Order]],{{citation needed|date=May 2013}} although it probably received [[town rights]] before, when it was still part of the Kingdom of Poland.<ref name=tuch/> At that time, the town already had defensive walls, a castle, a town hall and the [[Gothic architecture|Gothic]] Church of St. Bartholomew.<ref name=tuch/>

After the Order's defeat in the [[Battle of Grunwald]] on July 14, 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army recaptured the town on November 5, 1410, but the Order regained the town in the [[Peace of Thorn (1411)|First Peace of Thorn]] in 1411. In 1440 the town joined the [[Prussian Confederation]], which opposed Teutonic rule, and at the request of which King [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]] signed the act of re-incorporation of the town and region to the [[Kingdom of Poland (1385–1569)|Kingdom of Poland]] in 1454. The town became again part of Poland and Poles manned the castle.{{sfn|Górski|1962|p=53}} Tuchola became the seat of the local [[starost]]s, the first of which was {{interlanguage link|Mikołaj Szarlejski|pl|display=1}}. During the subsequent [[Thirteen Years' War (1454–66)|Thirteen Years' War]], in 1464, a Polish-Teutonic battle was fought there, ending in a Polish victory.{{sfn|Górski|1962|p=54}} The Teutonic Order renounced claims to the town in the [[Second Peace of Thorn (1466)|Second Peace of Thorn]] in 1466. Tuchola was a [[Royal city in Poland|royal town]] of the Polish Crown, administratively part of the [[Pomeranian Voivodeship (1466–1772)|Pomeranian Voivodeship]] in the province of [[Royal Prussia]] in the larger [[Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown|Greater Poland Province]]. During the [[Deluge (history)|Swedish invasion of Poland]] (1655–1660), the town and the castle were besieged by the Swedes five times, but to no avail.<ref name=tuch/>

Under the [[First Partition of Poland]] in 1772, Tuchola, renamed ''Tuchel'', was annexed by the [[Kingdom of Prussia]]. On May 17, 1781, the Church of St. Bartholomew and vast parts of the town burned down. Around 1785 there existed 148 households inside Tuchel, and the town owned both the village of [[Kiełpin, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Kiełpin]] (then ''Kelpin'') and the small estate Wymysłowo (then named ''Wymislawe'').<ref>[[Johann Friedrich Goldbeck]]: ''Volständige Topographie des Königreichs Preussen'', Part II: ''Topograpie von West-Preussen'', Marienwerder 1789, [https://books.google.com/books?id=SQw_AAAAcAAJ&pg=PA71 p. 76, no. 2] (in German).</ref> During the reign of Prussian King [[Frederick the Great]] (1740–1786), the town was built up again, and German Protestants obtained a church in the town hall.<ref name="AEP"/> In the early 19th century, during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] and [[History of Poland (1795–1918)|Polish national liberation fights]], French, Polish, Prussian and Russian troops were stationed in the town. With the unification of Germany under Prussian hegemony in 1871, it became part of the [[German Empire]]. The Polish population was subject to [[Germanisation]] policies, which intensified after 1871, however, various Polish organizations were founded in Tuchola in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<ref name=odw>{{cite web|url=https://www.tuchola.pl/strona-119-kalendarium_okno_do_wolnosci_1918_1920.html|title=Kalendarium "Okno do wolności" (1818 - 1920)|website=Portal - Urząd Miejski Tuchola|author=Paweł Redlarski|access-date=11 February 2020|language=pl}}</ref> During [[World War I]], a [[prisoner-of-war camp]] was established near the town, mostly for Romanians and Russians, but also Poles, Italians, French and British.

On November 24, 1918, almost two weeks after Poland's declaration of independence, a Polish rally was held in Tuchola.<ref name=odw/> In December, local German settlers protested against the creation of independent Poland.<ref name=odw/> Another Polish rally was held on January 12, 1919.<ref name=odw/> The next Polish rallies took place in 1919, and after the Poles celebrated the anniversary of the [[Constitution of 3 May 1791]], the Germans introduced [[martial law]] in Tuchola, and searches were carried out in many Polish homes.<ref name=odw/> Following the 1919 [[Treaty of Versailles]], the town was finally reintegrated with the [[Second Polish Republic]] in January 1920.

The former German POW camp became known as Camp No. 7. Beginning in the autumn of 1920 during [[Polish-Soviet war]], thousands of captured [[Red Army]] men were placed in the camp of Tuchola. These [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] (POWs) lived in crude dugouts, and hunger, cold, and infectious diseases killed many. According to historians [[Zbigniew Karpus]] and [[Waldemar Rezmer]], up to 2,000 prisoners died in the camp before it was closed in 1923.<ref name="np">{{cite web | url=http://www.novpol.ru/index.php?id=498 | title=ПЛЕННЫЕ КРАСНОАРМЕЙЦЫ В ПОЛЬСКИХ ЛАГЕРЯХ (Red Army prisoners in the Polish camps) | publisher=Нoвaя Poльшa | date=October 2005 | access-date=2013-04-19 | author=Pamyatnykh, Alex}}</ref> These events tend to be used by some Russian historians, publicists and politicians, who falsely claim that 22,000 POWs died in the camp, also as a result of alleged executions, as part of Russian negationist [[Anti-Katyn]] propaganda.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nowosci.com.pl/nasz-katyn-czyli-lagier-tuchola/ar/10944675|title=Nasz Katyń, czyli łagier Tuchola|website=Nowości Dziennik Toruński|author=Krzysztof Błażejewski|access-date=1 February 2020|language=pl}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://bydgoszcz.tvp.pl/4561452/rosyjska-tv-w-obozie-pod-tuchola-masowo-gineli-czerwonoarmisci|title=Rosyjska TV: W obozie pod Tucholą masowo ginęli czerwonoarmiści|website=TVP3 Bydgoszcz|author=Agnieszka Raczyńska-Szperlak|access-date=11 February 2020|language=pl}}</ref>

[[File:Rudzki Most massacre.jpg|thumb|Poles massacred by the Germans in [[Rudzki Most]] in 1939]]
During the [[invasion of Poland]], which marked the beginning of [[World War II]], Tuchola was captured by the Germans on September 2, 1939. Along with the rest of the region, was [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|occupied]] by [[Nazi Germany]]. The [[Einsatzkommando 16]] entered the town to commit various [[Nazi crimes against the Polish nation|crimes against Poles]].<ref>Maria Wardzyńska, ''Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion'', [[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]], Warszawa, 2009, p. 61 (in Polish)</ref> From mid-September 1939, Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles from the town and county, who were initially imprisoned in the local courthouse, and after its overcrowding, they were deported to a temporary camp established in the nearby village of [[Radzim, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship|Radzim]].<ref>Wardzyńska, p. 168</ref> Some Poles were executed in Radzim, but more were murdered in [[Rudzki Most]] (present-day district of Tuchola), where Germans carried out large massacres of Poles in October and November 1939, killing several hundreds people.<ref>Wardzyńska, p. 169</ref> Among Poles massacred in Rudzki Most were teachers, school principals, merchants, craftsmen and local officials from Tuchola, including mayor Stanisław Saganowski, as well as farmers, priests, foresters, postmen, railwaymen, merchants, craftsmen and policemen from nearby villages.<ref>Wardzyńska, p. 170-171</ref> After the German defeat, the town reverted to Poland.
{{multiple image |align=right |caption_align=center |perrow=2 |total_width=350 |header=Architecture of Tuchola
| image1 = Tuchola rada powiatu.jpg
| image2 = Forsttechnikum Tuchel.jpg
| image3 = Pomnik - Mauzoleum ku czci osób zamordowanych w Rudzkim Moście - panoramio.jpg
| image4 = Tuchola church.jpg
| caption1 = Town Hall
| caption2 = Forestry school
| caption3 = Mausoleum of Poles murdered during the [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupation]] in [[Rudzki Most]]
| caption4 = Saint James church
}}

=== Number of inhabitants by year ===

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year 
! Number
|-
| 1772 || align="right" | 490
|-
| 1802 || align="right" | 1,159
|-
| 1805 || align="right" | 1,251
|-
| 1831 || align="right" | 1,283
|-
| 1837 || align="right" | 1,435
|-
| 1843 || align="right" | 1,801
|- 
| 1865 || align="right" | 2,579
|- 
| 1875 || align="right" | 2,780
|-
| 1880 || align="right" | 3,066
|-
| 1890 || align="right" | 2,826
|-
| 1905 || align="right" | 3,448
|-
| 1931 || align="right" | 5,477
|-
| 1943 || align="right" | 7,086
|-
| 2013 || align="right" | 13,418
|-
| 2024 || align="right" | 12,843
|}

<ref name="AEP" >August Eduard Preuß: ''Preußische Landes- und Volkskunde'', Königsberg 1835,  [https://books.google.com/books?id=L_sAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA383 p. 383–384, no. 16].</ref><ref>Ludwig von Baczko: ''Handbuch der Geschichte, Erdbeschreibung und Statistik Preussens'', Vol. II, Part 2, Königsberg and Leipzig 1803, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ddgAAAAAcAAJ&pg=RA1-PA69 p. 69] (in German).</ref><ref>August Carl von Holsche: ''Geographie und Statistik von West-, Süd- und Neu-Ostpreußen. Nebst einer kurzen Geschichte des Königreichs Polen bis zu dessen Zertheilung''. Vol. 3, Berlin 1807, [https://books.google.com/books?id=cdoAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA110 p. 110] (in German).</ref><ref>W. F. C. Starke: ''Beiträge zur Kenntniß dere bestehenden Gerichtsverfassung und der neuesten Resutate der Justizverwaltung und des Preussischen Staates'', Vol. II, Part 1: ''Preußen, Posen, Pommern, Schlesien''. Berlin 1839, [https://books.google.com/books?id=rdVDAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA158 p. 158] (in German).</ref><ref>''Archiv der Pharmacie'', Vol. XCII, Hannover 1845, [https://books.google.com/books?id=egQFAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA1-PA256 p. 256] (in German).</ref><ref>''Meyers Großes Konversatins-Lexikon'', 6th edition, Vol. 19, Leipzig and Vienna 1909, pp. 791-792.</ref><ref name="VwG" >Michael Rademacher: ''[http://www.verwaltungsgeschichte.de/dan_tuchel.html Deutsche Verwaltungsgeschichte Provinz Westpreußen]'' (2006) (in German).</ref><ref name="TH" >''Topographisch-statistisches Handbuch für den Regierungsbezirk Marienwerder'', Danzig 1868; see [https://books.google.com/books?id=cQMrAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA50 ''III. Kreis Konitz'', pp. 50-51, entry no. 349] (in German).</ref>

==Education==
*Higher School of Environmental Management ({{langx|pl|Wyższa Szkoła Zarządzania Środowiskiem}})

==Famous residents==
*[[Louis Lewin]] (1850–1929), physician, pharmacologist, toxicologist in Berlin
*[[Max Liebermann von Sonnenberg]] (1848–1911), German politician
*[[Johannes Holzmann]] (Senna Hoy) (1882–1914), anarchist author
*[[Wilhelm Ambrosius]] (1903–1955), [[Kriegsmarine]] officer
*[[Marcin Jędrzejewski (speedway rider)|Marcin Jędrzejewski]] - [[Motorcycle speedway|speedway]] rider and current member of [[Poland speedway team|Polish national junior team]].
*[[Tadeusz Zwiefka]] - popular TV journalist, and a Civic Platform Member of [[European Parliament]].

==See also==
*[[Camps for Russian prisoners and internees in Poland (1919–1924)]]

== Footnotes ==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* {{Cite book |last=Górski |first=Karol |title=Dzieje Tucholi i okolic do końca XVIII w. |year=1962 |publisher=[[Polish Scientific Publishers PWN|PWN]] |location=[[Toruń]] |language=pl }}

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070928040837/http://www.tuchola.pl/english/ Municipal website]

{{Tuchola County}}
{{Gmina Tuchola}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Cities and towns in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship]]
[[Category:Tuchola County]]