Gostyń

A 1278 document establishing Gostyń and granting town rights, issued by Przemysł II

Gostyń dates back to the 13th century. The town was founded by local nobleman Mikołaj Przedpełkowic and granted town rights in 1278[1] by Przemysł II. It was named after the nearby village of Gostyń, which since took the name of Stary Gostyń ("Old Gostyń").[1] Gostyń was a private town, administratively located in the Kościan County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.[2] It developed as a local centre of trade and crafts. In the 16th century Gostyń was an important regional Reformation center,[3] and in 1565 a synod of various Protestants of Greater Poland was held there.[1] The town suffered during the 17th century Swedish invasions and an epidemic in the 18th-century.[1] In the 18th century one of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the town and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route.[4]

In 1793 Gostyń was annexed by Prussia during the Second Partition of Poland. In 1807 regained by the Poles as part of the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw, in 1815 it was re-annexed by Prussia.[3] Gostyń was a center of Polish resistance to Germanisation policies.[1] In 1835 Kasyno Gostyńskie was founded, a significant local Polish organization, which under the disguise of social activity conducted economic, educational and library activities.[5] The Prussians abolished the organization in 1846 and its library's collection was moved to Poznań.[5] Gostyń was the site of preparations for the Greater Poland uprising (1848), and during the uprising, it was captured by the Prussians in April 1848.[5] Many inhabitants took part in the next Greater Poland uprising (1918–19),[1][3] after which Gostyń joined the re-established Polish state.

World War II

Monument to the victims of the October 21, 1939 execution at the Market Square

During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, Gostyń was captured by the Wehrmacht on September 6, 1939.[6] During the Nazi German occupation of Poland Gostyń became the site of public executions, arrests and expulsions of Poles. First mass arrests and executions were carried out already in September 1939.[7] On 21 October 1939 some 30 citizens of the town whose names were listed in the Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen (Special Prosecution Book-Poland) prepared by local German minority, were executed by an Einsatzkommando. Among the murdered were Gostyń's mayor Hipolit Niestrawski, Polish activists, officials, craftsmen and former Greater Poland insurgents.[8] Mass expulsions began on 4 December 1939, with up to 2,000 Poles deported to General Government on the orders of SS-Standartenführer Ernst Damzog stationing in Poznań. Between spring of 1940 and 15 March 1941 additional 3,222 were deported.[9] Władysław Nawrocki, Polish officer and pre-war chairman of the local football club Kania Gostyń, was murdered by the Soviets in the Katyn massacre in 1940.[10] In 1940 the Czarny Legion secret Polish resistance organization was founded.[6] It was crushed by the Germans in 1941. Several dozens of its members were arrested and then brutally tortured in a prison in Rawicz.[6] After a Nazi show trial in Zwickau in 1942, 12 members were executed in Dresden, and several dozen were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps, where 37 of them died.[6] German occupation ended in 1945.

Data for 31 December 2003:

Data for 30 June 2004:

There is a local historical museum in Gostyń (Muzeum w Gostyniu) and a private car museum (Auto-Muzeum w Gostyniu).

The local football club is Kania Gostyń. It competes in the lower leagues.

• 
  Gothic St. Margaret's Church
• 
  Town Hall at the Market Square (Rynek)
• 
  Independence monument at the Market Square
• 
  Town centre
• 
  Holy Spirit Church and Gostyń County office
• 
  ZUS office

• Wojciech Długoraj (c. 1557-c. 1619), Polish Renaissance composer
• Andrzej Juskowiak (born 1970), former Polish footballer, with 39 games played for the Poland national football team

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gostyń.

• Wojciech Kaczmarek (born 1983), Polish footballer
• Sebastian Fechner (born 1983), Polish footballer
• Paweł Piotrowski (born 1985), Polish Paralympian athlete
• Bartosz Rymaniak (born 1989), Polish footballer

• UM.Gostyn.pl in Polish, English, and German
• Gostyn at Gostyn24.pl
• Gostyn Virtual Tour at Wirtualnygostyn.pl