Wieleń

19th-century view of the Sapieha Palace, the greatest historic landmark of Wieleń

Part of Poland since the Middle Ages, Duke Władysław Odonic of Greater Poland brought the Cistercians to Wieleń in 1239.[1] Wieleń was a private town of Polish nobility, including the Czarnkowski and Sapieha families, administratively located in the Poznań County in the Poznań Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.[2] Zofia Czarnkowska erected the early Baroque Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and a hospital in Wieleń,[3] and Piotr Paweł Sapieha built a Baroque palace.

As a result of the First Partition of Poland, in 1772 it was annexed by Prussia. In 1807 it was regained by Poles and included in the newly established Duchy of Warsaw, after its dissolution in 1815 it was re-annexed by Prussia,[1] and from 1871 to 1919 it was part of Germany. After World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and the Greater Poland Uprising broke out, which goal was to reunite the region with Poland. On January 18, 1919, the town was captured by Polish insurgents,[1] and afterwards restored to Poland. After the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II, from 1939 to 1945 it was occupied by Germany.

• Baroque Sapieha Palace (18th century)
• Baroque Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and Saint Michael (1615–1630)
• Bismarck Tower (1902)

The local football team is Fortuna Wieleń. It competes in the lower leagues.

• Moritz Lazarus (born 1824 here–1903), Jewish philosopher
• Abraham Baer (1834–1894), Jewish Kantor
• Joseph S. Manasse (1831–1897), early settler of San Diego, California
• Louis Waldenburg (1837–1881), German physician
• Aron Freimann (1871–1948), Jewish bibliographer, historian

Residents

• Hermann Wilhelm Ebel

• Wieleń's City Department
• High School in Wieleń
• M-GOK Wieleń

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