Jarocin

Radoliński Palace, a 19th century depiction

The lordship of Jarocin was first mentioned in a 1257 deed issued by Duke Bolesław the Pious of Greater Poland. The town was conveniently located at the intersection of the trade routes from Wrocław to Toruń and from Poznań to Kalisz. It was a private town of Polish nobility, administratively located in the Pyzdry County in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.[3]

Jarocin was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the 1793 Second Partition of Poland and administered within South Prussia. It was part of the Duchy of Warsaw from 1807–13 during the Napoleonic Wars, but was restored to Prussia afterwards. The town was included within the Grand Duchy of Posen from 1815 and the Province of Posen from 1848. It became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1889 it was included within the newly created Jarotschin District of the Province of Posen.

Jarocin participated in the Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919) and had the first soldiers' council in the Province of Posen. Polish insurgents captured the local military barracks and rail junction on November 8-9, 1918, just days before Poland declared independence on November 11.[4] It was subsequently included in the Second Polish Republic. 42 Polish insurgents from Jarocin and nearby settlements were killed in the uprising.[4] In the interbellum Jarocin was a county seat in the Poznań Voivodeship.

The town was annexed by Nazi Germany in 1939 during World War II and administered within Reichsgau Wartheland as part of the district or county (kreis) of Jarotschin. Poles arrested during the Intelligenzaktion were imprisoned in the local prison.[5] Many Polish citizens, especially Jews, were expelled and replaced with ethnic Germans from the Baltic states, Volhynia, and Bukovina in accordance with the German Lebensraum policy. Many inhabitants were also deported to forced labour in Germany.[1] The Germans devastated the memorial at the mass grave of the fallen Polish insurgents of 1918–1919.[4] A forced labor prison operated in the vicinity from January 1941 to January 1945.[6] Nevertheless, the Polish resistance movement was organized in the town, including the Secret Military Organization and structures of the Polish Underground State.[7] Following the arrival of the Red Army and the end of the war in 1945, Jarocin was restored to Poland, however with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. The devastated insurgents' tombstone was renovated in 1948.[4]

Polish Rock Granary, a museum dedicated to Polish rock music

Main landmarks and points of interest include the old Radoliński Palace with an adjacent park, the Polish Rock Granary, a museum dedicated to Polish rock music, the Rynek (Market Square) filled with historic architecture, including the town hall, which also houses the historic museum, and the St. Martin's Church, and several Greater Poland Uprising memorials.[4]

The town's most notable clubs are rugby union team Sparta Jarocin, which competes in the Ekstraliga (Poland's top division), and football team Jarota Jarocin, which competes in the lower leagues.

• Wielkopolska Wyższa Szkoła Humanistyczno-Ekonomiczna

Jarocin is twinned with:

• Libercourt, France
• Veldhoven, Netherlands
• Hatvan, Hungary
• Schlüchtern, Germany
• Oleksandriia, Ukraine
• Korkuteli, Turkey

• 
  Rynek (Market Square) filled with colourful historic townhouses
• 
  Radoliński Palace
• 
  Radoliński Park
• 
  St. George Church
• 
  Jarocin Festival, 1984
• 
  Railway station

• Eduard Lasker (1829–1884), politician
• Gustav Wegner (1903–1942), German athlete
• Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf (1915–2006), operatic lyric soprano
• Czesław Madajczyk (1921–2008), Polish historian
• Sławomir Majusiak (born 1964), Polish long-distance runner
• Robert Baran (born 1994), Polish wrestler

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jarocin.

• Site of Jarocin's Municipal Office