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Bydgoszcz

BASIC FACTS
Establishment: 1038
City rights: 1346/49
Area: 174,57 sq. Km
Elevation: 60 metres
Population: around 370 000
Unemployment rate: 6,3 %
Significant employers: PESA, Zachem Ciech, Alcatel Lucent, Jutrzenka, Bank Pocztowy
Average wage: 2800 PLN
Official website: www.bydgoszcz.pl

TRANSPORT & ACCOMODATION COSTS
Single public transport ticket - 1,10 PLN
Monthly ticket - 58 PLN
Taxi fares - 2-3 PLN / km
A single room monthly rent - 250-600 PLN
A single room flat rent - 850 PLN
A double room flat rent - 1200 PLN

HISTORY
Originally a fishing settlement called Bydgostia, the city became a stronghold for the Vistula trade routes. In the 13th century it was the site of a castellany, first mentioned in 1238. The city was occupied by the Teutonic Knights from 1331-1337, and later by King Casimir III of Poland, who granted the city municipal rights on 19 April 1346. The city increasingly saw an influx of Jews after that date.

In the 15th-16th centuries Bydgoszcz was a significant site for corn trading. The Treaty of Bydgoszcz was signed in the city in 1657.

Bydgoszcz followed the history of Greater Poland until 1772, when it was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland and incorporated into the Netze District and, later, West Prussia. During this time, a canal was built from Bydgoszcz to Nakło which connected the north-flowing Vistula River via the Brda to the west-flowing Noteć, which in turn flowed to the Oder via the Warta.

In 1807 Bydgoszcz became part of the Duchy of Warsaw. In 1815 it returned to Prussian rule as part of the autonomous Grand Duchy of Poznań and capital of Bromberg district. After 1871 the city was part of the German Empire's Province of Posen. After World War I and the Great Poland Uprising, Bydgoszcz was annexed to Poland in 1919. It shifted in 1938 to the Pomeranian Voivodeship.

From 1939-45 during World War II, Bydgoszcz was overrun by Nazi Germany and annexed to the Reichsgau Wartheland. On September 3 1939, shortly after the war started, the Bromberg Bloody Sunday incident occurred in which numerous Poles and Germans were killed; the incident was used by Nazi propaganda for retaliation against Poles after Bydgoszcz was occupied by the Wehrmacht on September 9. The city's Jewish citizens were repressed, as thousands of people were sent to concentration camps and/or executed. Bydgoszcz (Fordon) was the site of Bromberg-Ost, a female subcamp of Stutthof. The subcamp staffed several female SS guards (Aufseherin) and was commanded by the Oberaufseherin Johanna Wisotzki and a male commandant. A deportation camp was situated in Smukała village, now part of Bydgoszcz. According to Nowa encyklopedia powszechna PWN, 37,000 citizens of the city died during the war.[1]

In 1945 Bydgoszcz was liberated and annexed again to Poland.

In 1981 Solidarity's activists were violently suppressed in Bydgoszcz.