Tykocin

Tykocin
Street in Tykocin
Coat of arms
Tykocin
Coordinates: 53°12′11″N 22°46′15″E / 53.20306°N 22.77083°E / 53.20306; 22.77083
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Podlaskie
County	Białystok
Gmina	Tykocin
Established	11th century
Town rights	1425
Government
- Mayor	Krzysztof Chlebowicz
Population (2006)
- Total	1,893
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	16-080
Area code(s)	+48 85
Car plates	BIA
Website	tykocin.podlaskie.pl

Tykocin [tɨˈkɔt​͡ɕin] (German: Tykotzin; Yiddish: טיקטין) is an old, smaller size town in north-eastern Poland, with 1,800 inhabitants (1998), 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.

History of the town

The name of Tykocin was first mentioned in the 11th century and through the 14th century it was a Duchy of Masovian castellany seat and castle on the Masovian border neighboring the growing medieval pagan Lithuania. Tykocin received city rights from prince Janusz I of Warsaw in 1425, but several months later it was given to Grand Duchy of Lithuania by the Polish king Wladyslaw II Jagiello.

Shortly later, or about 1433 AD, Duke Sigismund Kęstutaitis gave the town along with other towns to Jonas Gostautas, and it became the most important power seat of that Lithuanian magnate Gostautai family clan. During 1560s, upon the family's last member passing away, the town became one of the most favorite properties for Polish king and Lithuanian Grand Prince Sigismund II Augustus who had a Renaissance castle built there instead of the medieval one. It became property of the Crown and eventually it was awarded to hetman Stefan Czarniecki, later on through marriage of Czarniecki's daughters it passed to Branicki Gryf coat-of-arms family.

After the Partitions of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth one of the Branickis, Isabela Branicka sold the town to the Prussian government circa 1795. In 1807 it was given to Russia as a part of the Treaty of Tilsit. In 1815 it was returned to the Kingdom of Poland. During the interwar period, the population of Tykocin had reached an estimated 4,000 inhabitants. In 1950 Tykocin lost its city rights due to heavy loss of life during World War II, only to regain it in 1993 after the collapse of communism.

The Holocaust

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,^[1][2] where they were executed in waves into pits by SS Einsatzkommando Zichenau-Schroettersburg under SS-Obersturmführer Hermann Schaper.^[3] A memorial now exists outside the city.

Points of interest

• Castle of II Augustus 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, is 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 monastery dating from 1771–90
• Former military hospital from 1755
• Jewish cemetery - one of the oldest in Poland
• a lot of white storks and their nests

• 

  Church of the Holy Trinity

• 

  Baroque Jewish Synagogue

• 

  Castle after reconstruction

• 

  Main altar at Holy Trinity

Notable individuals

• Joshua Höschel ben Joseph, a Polish rabbi born in Wilno
• Jan Klemens Branicki, Field Crown Hetman of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
• Łukasz Górnicki, chancellor of Sigismund August of Poland
• Mikołaj Ostroróg, a Polish-Lithuanian szlachcic
• Bogusław Radziwiłł, an Imperial Prince of the Holy Roman Empire
• Janusz Radziwiłł (1612-1655)
• Paweł Jan Sapieha
• Jan Smółko (b. 1907, AK alias Lokalizator), wife Władysława (b. 1908), Polish Righteous among the Nations - produced over a hundred fake IDs for Tykocin Jews during World War II, based on Catholic parish records.^[4]
• Rebecca bat Meir Tiktiner (d. 1550)
• Krzysztof Wiesiołowski

See also

• Gmina of Tykocin
• Tykocin pogrom

References

1. ^ (Polish) "Rocznica zagłady żydowskiego Tykocina," (commemoration) Gazeta Wyborcza Białystok, 24 August 2009
2. ^ Tykocin na mapie polskich judaików, at www.kirkuty.xip.pl
3. ^ 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)
4. ^ Jan Smółko, deposition made available by the Ostberg Foundation, New York; Okręgowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu w Białymstoku, Merkuriusz Mszonowski, 4(150), 2009, page 34

• Tykocin on the map of Poland, at www.pilot.pl
• Tykocin Synagogue photos, at ddickerson.igc.org
• Another page about the Synagogue
• "Tykocin - news, photos... all about this beautiful town," at www.tykocin1425.az.pl.
• Plac Czarnieckiego 10 Anthropological project: art, history and heritage of Tykocin.
• "Tykocin – the town full of history," travel essay
• photos of Tykocin castle and events

Coordinates: 53°12′N 22°47′E / 53.2°N 22.783°E / 53.2; 22.783