Czestochowa

Poland history and facts in brief              Black Madonna of Czestochowa

Czestochowa
Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Czestochowa is a city in south Poland on the Warta River with 248,894 inhabitants (2004).
Situated in the Silesian Voivodship (since 1999), previously capital of Czestochowa Voivodship (1975-1998).

This town is known for the famous Paulite monastery of Jasna Góra that is the home of the Black Madonna painting, a shrine of the Virgin Mary.

Every year, thousands of pilgrims from all over the world come to Czestochowa to see it.
There is also a Lusatian culture excavation site and museum in the city and ruins of a medieval castle in Olsztyn, approximately 15 kilometres (ca. 10 mi.) from the city centre.

Voivodship: Silesian
Municipal government: Rada miasta Czestochowy
Area: 160 km²
Population: 248,894 (2004)
- density 1 597/km²
Founded: 11th century
City rights: after 1370
Latitude: 19°07'E
Longitude: 50°48'N
Area code: +48 34
Car plates: SC
Twin towns: Altlotting, Fatima, Loreto, Lourdes, Pforzheim, Rezekne, South Bend, Siauliai
Municipal Website: (http://www.czestochowa.um.gov.pl/)

The name of Czestochowa means Czestoch's place and comes from a personal name of Czestoch mentioned in the mediaeval documents also as Czestobor and Czestomir.
The original name was mentioned as Czestochowa, spelled Czanstochowa in 1220, or Czestochow in 1382 and 1558.
A part of today's city called Czestochówka was a separate municipality mentioned in 14th century as the Old Czestochowa (Antiquo Czanstochowa, 1382) and Czestochówka in 1470-80.

History
The village of Czestochowa was founded in 13th century.
Before 1377 it received a town charter, which was later changed to the Magdeburg Law in 1502.
In the 17th century the local monastery was turned into a fortress, which was one of the pockets of Polish resistance against the Swedish armies during The Deluge in 1655.
After the Third Partition of Poland it was annexed by Prussia and incorporated into the Neue Schlesien province.
During the Napoleonic Wars, in 1807 it became part of the Duchy of Warsaw and since 1815 the Kingdom of Poland.
This started a period of fast growth of the city.
In 1819 renown military architect Jan Bernhard planned and started the construction of Aleja Panny Marii - the Lady Mary Avenue, which currently is the main axis of the modern city.
The two existing towns of Czestochowa and Czestochówka (the latter received the city rights in 1717 as Nowa Czestochowa) were finally merged in 1826.
In 1846 the Warsaw-Vienna railway line was opened, linking the city with the rest of Europe.
After 1870 iron ore started to be developed in the area, which gave a boost to the local industry.
Among the most notable investments of the epoch was the Huta Czestochowa steel mill built by Bernard Hantke, as well as several weaveries and paper factories.
During the World War I the town got under German occupation, and in 1918 it became a part of the newly-reborn Republic of Poland.
The new state acquired large deposits of good iron ore in Silesia and the mines in Czestochowa became inefficient and soon were closed.
This brought the period of prosperity to an end.
At the same time a bishopry was relocated to the city in 1925.
After the Polish Defence War of 1939 the town was annexed by Nazi Germany, renamed to Tschenstochau and incorporated into the General Government.
During the World War II approximately 40,000 of Czestochowa's Jews were murdered by the Germans, almost the entire Jewish community living there.
After the war Czestochowa was returned to Poland.
Due to communist idea of fast industrialisation, the inefficient steel mill was significantly expanded and named after Boleslaw Bierut.
This, combined with the growing tourist movement, led to yet another period of fast city growth, concluded in 1975 with the creation of a separate Czestochowa Voivodship.
Currently the city is one of the main tourist attractions of the area and is sometimes called the little Nuremberg because of the number of souvenir shops and the historical monuments.
It also attracts hundreds of thousands of tourists and pilgrims every year.

External links

• Black Madonna Monastery
  
• native's portal

This page was retrieved and condensed from (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czestochowa) in July, 2005
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

Hui Chin and I visited Czestochowa during our 2005 trip in Europe.

During our visit the township of Czestochowa, the Jasna Gora Monastery and especially the Black Madonna Shrine was full of peolpe, old and young , local and visitor.

Many people came to attend the special Masses In Memory of the Late Pope John Paul II.

You can click on these photos for an enlargement

Black Madonn Shrine	Black Madonn Shrine	Jasna Gora Shrine	Candles for the late Pope John Paul II
Jasna Gora Shrine	Jasna Gora Shrine	Candles for the late Pope John Paul II	Czestochowa
Czestochowa	Czestochowa	Czestochowa	Czestochowa
Czestochowa	Czestochowa	Jasna Gora Shrine	Czestochowa
More candles for the late Pope John Paul II	Jasna Gora Monastery	Czestochowa	Jasna Gora Monastery

Black Madonn Shrine	Black Madonn Shrine

Czestochowa Buses

Czestochowa Buses	Czestochowa Buses

Czestochowa Trams

Czestochowa Trams

Czestochowa Trains

Czestochowa trains	Czestochowa trains	Czestochowa trains
Czestochowa trains	Czestochowa trains	Czestochowa trains
Czestochowa trains	Czestochowa trains	Czestochowa trains

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