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Frombork (Template:Lang-de) is a town in northern Poland, on the Vistula Lagoon in Warmia-Masuria Voivodship, population 2,602 as of 2005. Frombork was meticulously reconstructed after its destruction in World War II and is a major tourist attraction.

History

The town was founded as a defensive stronghold on an Old Prussian site. According to local legend, its inhabitants were baptised by Anselm, the first Bishop of Warmia. It is said that when the stronghold's holder died, his widow Gertruda offered the settlement to the bishop and it was accordingly, in her honor, named Frauenburg (Frau being the German for "wife"). A somewhat more historic theory attributes the name to a later German translation of the town's Latin name, Castrum Dominae Nostrae, so called after its cathedral.

Frombork is first mentioned in a 1278 document signed by Bishop Gerko Fleming. On July 8, 1310, the town, then known as Civitas Warmiensis, was granted Lübeck city rights by Bishop Eberhard of Nysa. In 1329-1388 its magnificent Gothic cathedral was built, and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, or "Our Lady" (in Latin, Domina Nostra; in German, Unsere Frau, hence Frauenburg, Fromborg, finally Frombork). Over the centuries, the cathedral has been expanded and rebuilt repeatedly.

There are also several other historic churches, dedicated to St. Nicolas, St. George, and St. Anne, all built in the 13th century.

In 1414 the city was plundered and burned during a war between Poland and the Teutonic Order. In 1454, during the Thirteen Years' War, the hill and its cathedral were captured by Jan Skalski, and were successfully defended under his command. From the 1466 Second Peace of Toruń, Frombork was an important city of the Bishopric of Warmia. It remained in Polish Royal Prussia for the next 300 years.

In the Middle Ages, Frombork's inhabitants were mainly merchants, farmers and fishermen. Perhaps the most famous resident was the Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus, who lived there 1512-16 and 1522-43. Copernicus, who wrote his De revolutionibus orbium cœlestium at Frombork, died there and was buried in the cathedral, where his burial place may be seen. The city was featured by the Prussian historian Christoph Hartknoch of Toruń in his Alt- und Neues Preußen (1679).

After the first partition of Poland (1772), the area came under the rule of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1899 a railway line was opened, connecting Elbląg to Braniewo via Frombork. The city, known by its German name, remained part of Prussia and later of Germany until that country's defeat in World War II (1945). The German inhabitants were either evacuated in the last weeks of the war or expelled with the rest of East Prussia's surviving German population.

After the war, the town, along with the rest of southern East Prussia, became part of Poland under territorial changes promulgated by the Potsdam Accords. The city – henceforth known by its Polish name – was resettled by Poles, many of them expellees from areas of eastern Poland that had been annexed by the Soviet Union.

In 1959 Frombork regained its city rights. Heavily (70%) damaged in World War II, in 1966-1973 it was rebuilt by Polish Boy Scouts in time for the 500th anniversary of Copernicus' birth.

Monuments

Frombork has several monuments relating to its history (see External links):

• monument to Nicolaus Copernicus;
• monument honoring Red Army soldiers, inscribed: "Glory to the Red Army heroes fallen in liberating Frombork";
• stone monument to people of East Prussia who drowned in the Vistula Lagoon during the 1945 exodus;
• memorial honoring the Boy Scouts and others who took part in "Operation 1001," 1966-73, the rebuilding of the town from its devastation in World War II.

The Copernicus monument erected by Imperial Germany's Wilhelm II, destroyed in World War II, was replaced in the mid-1950s. Copernicus' astronomical observatory, work room, instruments and planetarium are on display at Frombork's Nicolaus Copernicus Museum.

External links

• Municipal website
• Template:En icon Nicolaus Copernicus Museum in Frombork
• Template:Pl icon Monuments in Frombork
• Template:De icon History at Ostpreussen.net

• Towns in Poland