Middle Ages In the early Middle Ages the Piotrków region was part of the province of
Łęczyca of Poland ruled by the
Piast dynasty. In it became part of a separate principality. The foundation of the city and its development were connected with its geographical position and the advantageous arrangement of the roads linking the provinces of Poland in Piast times. At first, a market town and a place of the princes'
tribunals (in the 13th and 15th centuries), Piotrków became an administrative center (the capital of the district since 1418), and in later centuries it also became an important political center in Poland. The first record of Piotrków is in a document issued in 1217 by Polish monarch
Leszek I the White, where there is a mention of the duke's tribunal held "in Petrecoue". Medieval Piotrków was a trading place on the trade routes from
Pomerania to
Russia and
Hungary, and later from
Masovia to
Silesia. During the 13th century, apart from the tribunals, Polish provincial princes made Piotrków the seat of some assemblies of the
Sieradz knights, which according to historical sources were held in 1233, in 1241, and in 1291. It might have been during the 1291 assembly that the Prince of Sieradz,
Władysław I the Elbow-high, granted Piotrków
civic rights, because in documents from the beginning of the 14th century he mentions "civitate nostra Petricouiensi". The first certificate of foundation and the other documents were burnt in a great fire which destroyed the city around 1400. The privileges and rights were re-granted by King
Władysław II Jagiełło in 1404. The city walls were built during the reign of King
Casimir III the Great, and after the great fire, they were rebuilt at the beginning of the 15th century. During the reign of Casimir III, many expelled German
Jews from the
Holy Roman Empire migrated to the town, which grew to have one of the largest Jewish settlements in the kingdom. , now a museum Between 1354 and 1567 the city held general assemblies of Polish knights, and general or elective meetings of the Polish
Sejm (during the latter Polish kings of the
Jagiellon dynasty were elected there). In Piotrków, two
Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order pledged allegiance to Polish King
Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1469 and 1470. It was in the city of Piotrków that the Polish Parliament was given its final structure with the division into an Upper House and Lower Chamber in 1493. King
John I Albert published his "Piotrków privilege" on 26 May 1493, which expanded the privileges of the
szlachta (nobility) at the expense of the
bourgeoisie and the peasantry.
Modern period Piotrków became part of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. When the seat of the Parliament was moved to
Warsaw, the town became the seat of the highest court of Poland, the
Crown Tribunal, and trials were held there from 1578 to 1793; the highest Lithuanian court was held in
Grodno. Piotrków's Jewish population was expelled in 1578 and only allowed back a century later. The town became a post station in 1684. Around 1705, German settlers (often
Swabians) arrived in the town's vicinity and founded villages; they largely retained their customs and language until
their expulsion in 1945. While the importance of Piotrków in the political life of the country had contributed to its development in the 16th century, the city declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, due to fires, epidemics,
wars against Sweden, and finally the
Partitions of Poland. One of two main routes connecting
Warsaw and
Dresden ran through the city in the 18th century and Kings
Augustus II the Strong and
Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route. The first official inventory of important buildings in Poland,
A General View of the Nature of Ancient Monuments in the Kingdom of Poland, led by Kazimierz Stronczyński from 1844 to 1855, describes the
Great Synagogue of Piotrków as one of Poland's architecturally notable buildings. In 1793, the
Kingdom of Prussia annexed the town in the Second Partition of Poland and administered it as part of the Province of
South Prussia. During the
Napoleonic Wars, Piotrków became part of the
Duchy of Warsaw (1807–15) and was a district seat in the
Kalisz Department. After the defeat of
Napoleon in 1815, Piotrków became part of
Congress Poland, a puppet state of the
Russian Empire. When the
Warsaw–Vienna railway was built in 1846, there was a slight increase in the economic and industrial development of Piotrków. In January 1863, the Polish
January Uprising broke out. Among local Polish insurgents were many young people and Poles conscripted into the Russian army, who were stationed in the city. The Russians established a prison for captured insurgents in Piotrków. The province had the best developed industry of all of Congress Poland until 1914. Many Poles demonstrated and went on strike during the
1905 Russian Revolution. During
World War I, Piotrków was occupied by
Austria-Hungary. From 1915 to 1916, it was a center for Polish patriotic activity. The city was a seat of the Military Department of the National Committee, and a headquarters for the
Polish Legions, which were voluntary troops organized by
Józef Piłsudski,
Władysław Sikorski and others to fight against Russia. Piotrków became part of
restored independent Poland in 1918, following the defeat of the
Central Powers in the war. In the
interwar period, Piotrków was the capital of
Piotrków County in the
Łódź Voivodeship, and lost its previous importance. In 1922, the old monastery was restored to the Bernardines. The
Einsatzgruppe II then entered the city to commit various
crimes against the population. The town was occupied by
Nazi Germany for the following six years. In autumn of 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of dozens of Poles, including teachers, local activists, judges, parliamentarians, editors and bank employees, however some were later released. 47 Poles arrested in
Tomaszów Mazowiecki, including Tomaszów's mayor, were also imprisoned in Piotrków. Further mass arrests of hundreds of Poles were carried out in January, March, June and August 1940. Among Poles arrested in March were 12 teachers and students of
secret Polish schools. On 29 June 1940 the Germans carried out a massacre of 42 Poles from the prison in the Wolborski Forest in the northern part of the city. Among the victims were 14 students aged 17–18, eight reserve officers, and people of various professions, including pharmacists, an architect, railwayman, teacher, farmer and local secretary. Many Poles, who were born or lived in the city, were murdered by the Russians in the large
Katyń massacre in April–May 1940. As early as October 1939 Piotrków became the site of
the first Jewish ghetto of World War II set up in
occupied Poland. Approximately 25,000 people from Piotrków and the nearby towns and villages were imprisoned there. During
the Holocaust 22,000 were sent to the
Treblinka extermination camp, while 3,000 were imprisoned in other
Nazi concentration camps. A personal account of the Holocaust,
In the Mouth of the Wolf details the escape of the author
Rose Zar (née Rose Guterman) from the Piotrków Ghetto and hiding in plain sight, by working for the Wehrmacht and the SS. The secret
Polish Council to Aid Jews "Żegota", established by the
Polish resistance movement, operated in the city. From the first months of the war, Piotrków was a center for
underground resistance. From the spring of 1940, it was the seat of the district headquarters of the
Armia Krajowa, or Home Army. In the summer of 1944, the 25th Infantry Regiment of the Home Army was formed in the district; it was the largest military unit of the Łódź Voivodeship, and fought against the Germans until November 1944. In the city and district, there were also other partisan groups: the Military Troops (connected with the
Polish Socialist Party), People's Guard and People's Army (
Polish Workers' Party), Peasants' Battalions (
Polish People's Party), the National Military Organization and the National Armed Forces (
National Party). In 1944, during the
Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported over 15,000 Varsovians from the
Dulag 121 camp in
Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Piotrków. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children. After the fall of the uprising, the headquarters of the
Polish Red Cross was temporarily located in the local Royal Castle from October 1944 to January 1945. On 18 January 1945 the
Soviet Red Army entered the city, dislodging the German troops. The city was restored to Poland, but with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the
Fall of Communism in 1989.
Anti-communist partisans continued to fight in the vicinity in the following years.
Recent times From 1949 to 1970, Piotrków was transformed into an industrial center. Piotrków remained a district capital in the
Łódź Voivodeship, until 1975. Then, following the changes in the administrative division of the country, the city became the capital of the new
Piotrków Voivodeship, thus regaining the status of an important administrative, educational and cultural center of Poland. In 1999, the Piotrków Voivodeship was dissolved and Piotrków became the capital of Piotrków County within the Łódź Voivodeship. ==Economy==