Kociewie

The earliest inhabitants of what is now Kociewie are believed to have been from the Upper Paleolithic period. Evidence of the Linear Pottery culture has been unearthed in the region, and a Neolithic settlement discovered at Barłożno.{{cite web |last1=Jellonek |first1=Szymon |title=Prehistoria Tczewa |url=https://dawnytczew.pl/pl/historia/40-zanim-powstao-miasto-do-1260/151-prehistoria-tczewa.html |website=dawnytczew.pl |access-date=22 April 2024 |language=pl}} Archeological evidence from Tczew County indicates that the Kociewian lands were inhabited by people from the prehistoric Funnelbeaker culture. Later Iron Age settlements and cemeteries have also been uncovered in the same area.{{cite web |title=Zanim powstalo miasto (do 1260) |url=https://dawnytczew.pl/pl/historia/40-zanim-powstao-miasto-do-1260/208-zanim-powstalo-miasto-do-1260.html |website=dawnytczew.pl |access-date=22 April 2024 |language=pl}}

File:Owidz, grodzisko (5).JPG fortified settlement ({{lang|pl-kociewie|gard}}) at Owidz, the original of which was destroyed {{circa}} 1090 by Władysław I Herman in order to preclude an uprising in the region{{citation needed|date=May 2025}}]]

In the mid-10th century, the region was first included within the newly formed Polish state by Mieszko I. Later on, it separated from Poland until the 12th century when Bolesław III Wrymouth re-conquered the region, which was subsequently placed under the rule of Swietopelk I. By the end of the century, the region was ruled under the stewardship of Grzymisław, whose power was organised from the centres of Lubiszewo and Świecie. Kociewie then passed under the nominal rule of Sobiesław I, Sambor I, and Mestwin I before being controlled more directly from Lubiszewo by Sambor II and later his brother Świętopełk II in fortified Tczew.{{cite web |last1=Piotrowska |first1=Agnieszka |last2=Kowalkowski |first2=Krzysztof |title=Historia regionu |url=http://www.dialektologia.uw.edu.pl/index.php?l1=mapa-serwisu&l2=&l3=&l4=kociewie-historia-regionu |website=dialektologia.uw.edu.pl |publisher=University of Warsaw |language=Pl}}

File:Zamek Joannitów, Skarszewy, 2022-10-16.jpg in Skarszewy, former court in which Józef Wybicki, the author of the lyrics of the Polish national anthem, studied law]]

The latter half of the thirteenth century saw Polish control of Kociewie threatened by the forces of both the Teutonic Order and the Holy Roman Empire. This pressure led to Mestwin II ceding the lands around Gniew to the Teutonic Order in 1282. The region then went through a succession of local rulers owing their allegiance to Wenceslaus II of Bohemia or neighbouring states such as the Margraviate of Brandenburg. Eventually, Kociewie was taken over by the Teutonic Order.{{cite web |last1=Piotrowska |first1=Agnieszka |last2=Kowalkowski |first2=Krzysztof |title=Historia regionu |url=http://www.dialektologia.uw.edu.pl/index.php?l1=mapa-serwisu&l2=&l3=&l4=kociewie-historia-regionu |website=dialektologia.uw.edu.pl |publisher=University of Warsaw |language=Pl}} In 1440, several towns and nobles of Kociewie joined the newly formed anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation.{{Cite book|last=Górski|first=Karol|title=Związek Pruski i poddanie się Prus Polsce: zbiór tekstów źródłowych|year=1949|publisher=Instytut Zachodni|location=Poznań|language=pl|page=XXXVII}} In 1454, the organization asked Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon to reincorporate the region into the Kingdom of Poland, to which the King agreed and signed an act of re-incorporation in Kraków.Górski, pp. 51, 56 After the subsequent Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), the longest of all Polish–Teutonic wars, the Teutonic Knights renounced any claims to the region and recognized it as part of Poland.Górski, p. 88–90, 206–207

Within the Kingdom of Poland and Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth it formed part of the Pomeranian Voivodeship with the capital located in Skarszewy in Kociewie, and county seats located in Nowe, Skarszewy, Starogard, Świecie and Tczew. In the 16th and 17th centuries, there were instances of Scottish immigrants living in Gniew, Starogard and Tczew.{{cite book|last=Wijaczka|first=Jacek|editor-last1=Kopczyński|editor-first1=Michał|editor-last2=Tygielski|editor-first2=Wojciech|year=2010|title=Pod wspólnym niebem. Narody dawnej Rzeczypospolitej|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=Muzeum Historii Polski, Bellona|chapter=Szkoci|page=202|isbn=978-83-11-11724-2}} In the second half of the 17th century, prior to becoming King of Poland, John III Sobieski served as the starost of Gniew and built the Marysieńka Palace for his wife, Queen Marie Casimire, there. John III Sobieski, as starost, often visited Piaseczno, a local Catholic pilgrimage destination, and as king he ordered the construction of a new, greater vault in the local church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary, and visited Piaseczno shortly before his death in 1696.{{cite book|author= |title=Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom VIII|year=1887|language=pl|location=Warsaw|page=47}} In 1762–1765, Józef Wybicki, the author of the lyrics of the Polish national anthem, studied law at the court in Skarszewy.{{Cite news|url=https://www.kociewiak.pl/wiadomosci/8997,90-lat-mazurka-dabrowskiego-autor-hymnu-narodowego-mieszkal-w-skarszewach|title=90 lat Mazurka Dąbrowskiego. Autor Hymnu Narodowego mieszkał w Skarszewach|website=Kociewiak.pl|access-date=19 May 2024|language=pl}} Following the First Partition of Poland in 1772, the region was annexed by Prussia.

The first known mention of the region in the historical record dates to 10 February 1807 when the name Gociewie was used in correspondence between Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and one of his Lieutenant colonels’ during the Greater Poland Uprising.{{cite web |last1=Kowalkowski |first1=Krzysztof |last2=Piotrowska |first2=Agnieszka |title=Historia regionu |url=http://www.dialektologia.uw.edu.pl/index.php/Zanik%20nosowo%C5%9Bci?l1=opis-dialektow&l2=dialekt-wielkopolski&l3=kociewie&l4=kociewie-historia-regionu |website=dialektologia.uw.edu.pl |access-date=25 January 2024 |language=pl}} Although, it is likely that the name Kociewie had been in use since the late Middle Ages.{{cite journal |last1=Gierczyk |first1=Zbysław |last2=Ocieczek |first2=Bolesław |title=Kociewie na Turystycznym Szlaku |journal=Studia Periegetica |issue=5 |page=46|language=pl|date=2010 |volume=5 |url=https://journals.wsb.poznan.pl/index.php/sp/article/view/245/264 |trans-title=Kociewie on the Tourist Route |issn=1897-9262}}

One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish November Uprising from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through Tczew and Starogard.{{cite magazine|last=Umiński|first=Janusz|year=1998|title=Losy internowanych na Pomorzu żołnierzy powstania listopadowego|magazine=Jantarowe Szlaki|volume=4 |language=pl|issue=250|page=16}}

File:Kociewie en.svg’s ethnographic classifications ]]

In the mid-19 century the ethnographer Florian Ceynowa described the inhabitants of Kociewie; he named the people around Gniew and Pelplin as the Fetrów and Kociewiem respectively, distinguished by their melodic accents, who farmed pigs and horses. To their north were the Pola of the fields around Starogard Gdański.{{cite web |last1=Kurowski |first1=Mariusz |title="Kociewie w gazecie" – tytuł prześmiewczy, ale sprawa poważna |url=http://kociewiacy.pl/gminy/starogard_gdanski/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=770&Itemid=33 |website=kociewiacy.pl |access-date=22 April 2024 |language=pl |date=3 August 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200921084156/http://kociewiacy.pl/gminy/starogard_gdanski/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=770&Itemid=33 |archive-date=2020-09-21 }}

Many inhabitants of the region of the region militantly agitated against Prussian rule in Kociewie. The most notorious attempt at an uprising in Kociewie was led by Ceynowa in 1846.{{cite web |title=Starogard Gdański – historia i atrakcje |url=https://pomorskie.travel/artykuly/starogard-gdanski-historia-i-atrakcje/ |website=pomorskie.travel|language=pl}} In February of that year he organised a force of about 100 Kosynierzy to storm the barracks in, what was then named, Preußisch Stargard. However, the Prussian authorities had been forewarned about the imminent attack, which was subsequently abandoned.{{cite web |last1=Cholcha |first1=Sławomir |title=Florian Ceynowa (1817-1881) - życie i żniwo |url=https://kaszebsko.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/C-B.pdf |website=Kaszëbskô Jednota |language=pl}} The Kociewian uprising was planned to coincide with the Greater Poland Uprising.{{cite web |last1=Szymikowski |first1=Dariusz |title=170 lat od wystąpienia Floriana Ceynowy |url=https://kaszebsko.com/170-lat-od-wystapienia-floriana-ceynowy |website=Kaszëbskô Jednota |language=pl}} In 1906–1907, Polish children in Kociewie joined the children's school strikes against Germanisation that spread throughout the Prussian Partition of Poland.{{cite magazine|last=Korda|first=Krzysztof|title=Strajk szkolny na Kociewiu 1906–1907|magazine=Kociewski Magazyn Regionalny|year=2019|volume=2 |language=pl|issue=105|page=5}} Following World War I, Poland regained independence and control of Kociewie.

File:Muzeum Wisly 2019 P03.jpg from the region, now Vistula River Museum in Tczew]]

Following the Nazi German invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, Kociewie was declared part of the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia on 8 October 1939, with its judicial institutions being incorporated into the German system of regional, national, and Higher National courts the following year.{{cite journal |last1=Helmin |first1=Maciej |title=The Organisation and Functioning of the Polish Justice System in the Districts of Tczew and Starogard Gdański in the Years 1945-1950: A Contribution to the History of the Justice System in Pomerania (Kociewie) |journal=Biuletyn Stowarzyszenia Absolwentów i Przyjaciół Wydziału Prawa Katolickiego Uniwersytetu Lubelskiego |date=2021 |volume=XVI |issue=18 (2) |page=107 |doi=10.32084/sawp.2021.16.2-6 |issn=2719-3128}} Under German occupation, the Polish population was subjected to various crimes, such as mass arrests, imprisonment, slave labor, expulsions, kidnapping of children, deportations to concentration camps and genocide, including the Intelligenzaktion. Major sites of massacres of Poles in the region included Szpęgawsk, Mniszek, Skarszewy and Grupa.{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=IPN|pages=145–153, 167, 182}} The occupiers also murdered the patients of the psychiatric hospitals in Kocborowo (district of Starogard) and Świecie.

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In a 2013 study, Y-DNA haplogroups among the Polish population indigenous to Kociewie (n=158) were reported as follows:

56.3% R1a, 17.7% R1b, 8.2% I1, 7.6% I2, 3.8% E1b1b, 1.9% N1, 1.9% J and 2% of other haplogroups.{{Cite journal|last=Rebala |display-authors=etal|first=K.|date=April 2013|title=Contemporary paternal genetic landscape of Polish and German populations: from early medieval Slavic expansion to post-World War II resettlements|pmc=3598329|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=21|issue=4|at=Figure 1|pmid=22968131|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2012.190}}

{{See also|Greater Poland|Kashubians#Genetics}}

File:Starogard muzeum.jpg]]

The region is rich in historic architecture of various styles, including Gothic, Baroque and Art Nouveau. Most notable Gothic landmarks are the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption in Pelplin and Gniew Castle. John III Sobieski often resided in Gniew as a local starost before he became King of Poland.

Main museums of the region include:

• Vistula River Museum in Tczew, located in a pre-war agricultural machine factory where during World War II, a transit camp for Poles expelled from the region was established and operated by Nazi Germany.{{cite web|url=https://en.nmm.pl/the-vistula-river-museum/history-of-the-building-7|title=History of the building - Vistula River Museum|website=National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk|access-date=19 May 2024|archive-date=12 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211212110334/https://en.nmm.pl/the-vistula-river-museum/history-of-the-building-7|url-status=dead}}
• The Shipwreck Conservation Centre, a branch of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk, is located in Tczew.
• Diocesan Museum in Pelplin, which contains one of the finest collections of medieval art in Poland, and the country's sole copy of the Gutenberg Bible.
• Museum of Kociewie Land ({{lang|pl|Muzeum Ziemi Kociewskiej}}) in Starogard Gdański with archaeological, ethnographic and historical collections, located in two medieval defensive towers.{{cite web|url=https://muzeumstarogard.pl|title=Muzeum Ziemi Kociewskiej w Starogardzie Gdańskim|access-date=19 May 2024|language=pl}}

More unique museums include:

• Museum of the History of the Polish Peasant Movement ({{lang|pl|Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego}}) in Piaseczno, one of three such museums in Poland.{{cite web|url=https://mhprl.pl/piaseczno/|title=Piaseczno|website=Muzeum Historii Polskiego Ruchu Ludowego|language=pl|access-date=10 April 2025}}
• Museum of Firefighting ({{lang|pl|Muzeum Pożarnictwa}}) in Świecie.{{cite web|url=https://eswiecie.pl/muzeum-pozarnictwa/|title=Muzeum Pożarnictwa|website=eŚwiecie|language=pl|access-date=10 April 2025}}

• Kuyavia

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Category:Geography of Pomeranian Voivodeship

Category:Kociewie