Chodzież () is a town in northwestern Poland with 17,976 inhabitants as of December 2021, seat of the Chodzież County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship.
Geography
Chodzież is located in the northern part of Greater Poland (western Poland), in the Chodzieskie lakelands. The most important characteristics of this lakeland area are its typical postglacial landforms, forests of pines and mixed woodlands, and lakes. For this reason, the city's surroundings are known as "the Switzerland of Chodzież".
Five kilometers west of Chodzież, at the edge of the Chodzieskie lakelands, Mt. Gontyniec rises 192 meters above sea level as the highest peak in a chain of moraine hills; at the same time it has the highest elevation in northern Poland. Deep valleys and ridges covered with a 100-year-old beech forest ensure diversified surroundings.
Within the five square miles (13 km2) of city area, there are three lakes: Miejskie, 1 km2 (English: Town lake, 0.4 mile²), Karczewnik, , and Strzeleckie, , which make up about 13% of the total town area.
Demographics
Detailed data as of 31 December 2021:
Number of inhabitants by year:
History
A burial mound, estimated to date from 2000 B.C., is located in the area of the town where today's Słoneczna street lies. From about 1500 BC, tribes belonging to the Lusatian culture dominated the area for ten centuries. In 1904–1914 two burial grounds were discovered in the area of old Rzeźnicka street, that date to those times. In the early Middle Ages (400–700 AD), a little settlement existed on the south part of Lake Miejskie. Chodzież's beginnings go back at least to the 15th century. First written mention is from 1403. The name Chodzies is mentioned with that of the priest of the local Catholic parish. Researchers believe however, that town roots go back to the 13th century, when it already had its first church.
On 3 March 1434, King Władysław II Jagiello issued a privilege that vested Chodzież with Magdeburg town rights for Trojan of Łękno. For many centuries it was a privately owned city, located within the Kalisz Voivodeship (from 1768 in the Gniezno Voivodeship) in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. The LÍkiscy–Granowski family were the first owners, then from the mid of the 15th century, Chodzież belonged to the Potulicki family. From 1648 to 1830 the Grudziński family were the owners of Chodzież. The family's Grzymała coat of arms has been the town's crest since that time.
St. Florian's church situated at the Market Square, is the oldest monument in Chodzież. Its probable founder was the first owner of the settlement, Trojan of Lekno.
During the 17th century, various parts of Poland were invaded by Swedish troops. The arrival of a group of German clothmakers from Leszno, which had suffered a fire, around 1656, influenced the development of Chodzież. A new town was erected in the mid 18th century, next to the old medieval site in the city, which contained the Market, as the home of weavers and clothmakers. Today, this part of the city (Kościuszki Street) is marked by the characteristic gables of houses situated on narrow, rectangular plots of land. Each lot formerly had wooden sheds in the rear to store wool and cloth.
As the result of the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the town was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia and became a part of the newly established Netze River District.
In 1805, Chodzież's weavers imported a weaving machine from Berlin. Shortly after, Napoleon defeated Prussia (1807) and out of the Treaty of Tilsit, this part of Poland became part of the Duchy of Warsaw.
In 1815, Prussia and its allies defeated Napoleon, and this area became Prussian again as the Grand Duchy of Posen. It was supposed to be a Polish province within Prussian Kingdom. In reality, it was essentially a Prussian province.
The local weaving industry declined about 1812–1815, when a frontier customs post between the Duchy of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Prussia was demarcated. The tariff priced the Posen weavers out of their major eastern markets, so they either migrated to other textile producing areas (e.g. Łódź) or turned to other types of work, like farming.
In 1818, Chodzież became the administrative center of a county-like district (German: Kreis) (see Kreis Kolmar in Posen) that was formed from parts of the following these Kreise: Wirsitz, Wongrowitz, Obornik and Czarnikau (Polish: Wyrzysk, Wągrowiec, Oborniki and Czarnków). Over the years, it gained the character of a local administrative center, which it remained until 1975, when the division of Poland was reorganized into larger units.
In 1849, the Duchy was formalized as the Prussian province of Posen.