Tykocin

Tykocin [tɨˈkɔt͡ɕin] (Yiddish: טיקטין‎, Tiktin) is a small town in north-eastern Poland, with 2,010 inhabitants (2012), located on the Narew river. Tykocin has been situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship since 1999. Previously, it belonged to Białystok Voivodeship (1975-1998). It is one of the oldest settlements in the region.

Tykocin
Market Square with the statue of hetman Stefan Czarniecki and the Holy Trinity Church
Flag
Coat of arms
Tykocin
Tykocin
Coordinates: 53°12′11″N 22°46′15″E
Country Poland
VoivodeshipPodlaskie
CountyBiałystok
GminaTykocin
Established11th century
Town rights1425
Government
 • MayorMariusz Dudziński
Population
 (2018)
 • Total1,980[1]
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
16-080
Area code(s)+48 85
Car platesBIA
Websitetykocin.podlaskie.pl

History

Middle Ages

The name of Tykocin was first mentioned in the 11th century. Through the 14th century it was a castellany in the Duchy of Masovia on the border with pagan Lithuania. Tykocin received its city rights from prince Janusz I of Warsaw in 1425, but several months later the settlement was transferred to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (within the Polish-Lithuanian Union) by the Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło. Shortly later, in around 1433, Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis gave the town along with other surrounding villages to Jonas Gostautas, and it became the most important seat of the Lithuanian Gostautai noble family.

Early modern era
18th-century statue of hetman Stefan Czarniecki

In the 1542, upon the death of Gostautai family's last member, the town was acquired by Polish king and Lithuanian Grand Prince Sigismund II Augustus[2] who had the medieval stronghold remodelled into a Renaissance castle. One of the largest arsenals of Poland was located in Tykocin.[2] It subsequently became a royal town of the Polish Crown, located within the Podlaskie Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown and was eventually awarded to Hetman Stefan Czarniecki for his military service during the Swedish invasion of Poland[3] in 1661. In the 16th and 17th centuries Tykocin was granted new privileges by kings Stephen Báthory and Władysław IV Vasa.[3] Later on, through the marriage of Czarniecki's daughters, it passed to the Branicki (Gryf coat-of-arms) family. From 1513 until the Third Partition of Poland in 1795 Tykocin was a county (powiat) seat.

It was Tykocin, where in 1705 King Augustus II the Strong established the Order of the White Eagle, the highest and oldest Polish order.[3][4]

Most of Tykocin's landmarks was built in this era, including the Holy Trinity Church, monasteries of the Congregation of the Mission and the Bernardines, the former 17th-century military hospital, the synagogue and the statue of hetman Stefan Czarniecki.[3]

Late modern era and recent times

Following the Partitions of Poland Tykocin was annexed by Prussia[2] and Izabella Poniatowska-Branicka sold the town to the Prussian government in 1795. In 1807 it was briefly regained by Poles as part of the Duchy of Warsaw in accordance to the Treaty of Tilsit.[2] In 1815 it became part of the Congress Kingdom of Poland,[2] later on forcibly annexed by Imperial Russia.

French colonel Georges Frédéric Langermann, commander of the Polish 16th Infantry Regiment, in the Battle of Tykocin in 1831

During the November Uprising, on 21 May 1831, Polish insurgents won a battle against the Russians at Tykocin.[5] After the massacres of Polish protesters committed by the Russians in Warsaw in 1861, Polish demonstrations and clashes with Russian soldiers took place in Tykocin.[6] Shortly after the outbreak of the January Uprising, Tykocin was the site of a battle between Polish insurgents and Russian troops on 24-25 January 1863.[6] During the uprising, Tykocin was attacked by a Cossack unit led by Captain Dmitriyev, who forced the populace to sign a request to the tsarist administration to make him the town's military superior.[7] In this way, he obtained office, and then committed macabre murders of the inhabitants.[8] Dmitryev's cruelty even caused the Russians themselves to report him to the tsarist authorities, but he was only fined.[8]

Tykocin was reintegrated with Poland after the country regained independence after World War I in 1918. During the interwar period, the population of Tykocin had reached an estimated 4,000 inhabitants.

During World War II it was occupied by the Soviets from 1939 to 1941 and the Germans from 1941 to 1944.[2] The Jewish population of Tykocin estimated at 2,000 people was eradicated by Nazi Germans during the Holocaust. On 25–26 August 1941 the Jewish residents of Tykocin were assembled at the market square for "relocation", and then marched and trucked by the Nazis into the nearby Łopuchowo forest,[9][10] where they were executed in waves into pits by SS Einsatzkommando Zichenau-Schroettersburg under SS-Obersturmführer Hermann Schaper.[11] A memorial now exists outside the town for the Tykocin pogrom.

In 1950 Tykocin lost its town rights due to population loss in World War II, only to regain it in 1993.

Points of interest
Castle after reconstruction
  • Tykocin Castle built before 1469, extended in 16th century and partially reconstructed in 2005
  • The Baroque Tykocin Synagogue Bejt ha-Kneset ha-Godol, built in 1642, one of the best preserved in Poland from that period and a major tourist attraction.
  • A baroque Church of the Holy Trinity and former monastery of Congregation of Mission founded in 1742 by Jan Klemens Branicki
  • Baroque Bernardine Monastery from 1771–90
  • Monument of hetman Stefan Czarniecki from 1763[3]
  • Former military hospital from 1633–1647, the Alumnat, one of the oldest of its kind in Europe, now a hotel
  • Baroque manor house Rezydencja ekonomiczna, currently the Center of Culture, Sport and Tourism
  • Catholic cemetery, dating back to the 18th century
  • Jewish cemetery – one of the oldest in Poland
  • Monument of the White Eagle from 1982, referring to the establishment of the Order of the White Eagle in Tykocin in 1705[3]
  • Abundance of white storks and their nests in the area
  • Church of the Holy Trinity and Narew River Bridge
  • Church of the Holy Trinity
  • Main altar at Holy Trinity
  • Great Synagogue and Little Synagogue in Tykocin
  • Former 17th-century military hospital, now a hotel and restaurant
  • Bernardine Monastery

Notable individuals

References
  1. "Powierzchnia i ludność w przekroju terytorialnym w 2018 roku". Główny Urząd Statystyczny.
  2. "Tykocin". Encyklopedia PWN (in Polish). Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  3. "Tykocin – opis miejscowości". Atrakcje Podlasia (in Polish). Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  4. Tomasz Święcki, Opis starożytnéy Polski, tom I, Zawadzki i Węcki, Warszawa, 1816, p. 420–421 (in Polish)
  5. Arkadiusz Studniarek. "Bitwa pod Tykocinem - 21 maja 1831 r." (in Polish). Retrieved 31 October 2020.
  6. Katalog miejsc pamięci powstania styczniowego w województwie podlaskim, Towarzystwo Opieki nad Zabytkami Oddział Białystok, Białystok, 2013, p. 9 (in Polish)
  7. Katalog miejsc pamięci powstania styczniowego w województwie podlaskim, p. 14-15
  8. Katalog miejsc pamięci powstania styczniowego w województwie podlaskim, p. 15
  9. (in Polish) "Rocznica zagłady żydowskiego Tykocina," Archived 2012-03-01 at the Wayback Machine (commemoration) Gazeta Wyborcza Białystok, 24 August 2009
  10. Tykocin na mapie polskich judaików, at www.kirkuty.xip.pl
  11. Alexander B. Rossino, "Contextualizing Anti-Jewish Violence in the Białystok District during the Opening Weeks of Operation Barbarossa", Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry, Volume 16 (2003)
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