With 33,293[1] inhabitants, Nowy Targ is the largest town and the historic capital of Podhale, as well as its main commercial, communication and industrial center.
Established before 1233, Nowy Targ received city rights on 22 June 1346 from King Casimir the Great. The historic architectural and urban complex of the town with a medieval market square has been preserved to this day.
Toponymy
In 1233, a settlement called in Polish: Stare Cło, lit. 'Old Toll' (Latin: Antiquum Theoloneum) or Polish: Długie Pole, lit. 'Long Field' is mentioned in the vicinity of the present town. Later, a settlement of Novum Forum, Neoforum[2] was established in the new place. The name of the town was spelled in Polish: Nowy Targ, lit. 'New Market' or Nowytarg.[2]
The town's full official name is Królewskie Wolne Miasto Nowy Targ, which can be translated as 'Royal Free Town Nowy Targ'. Nowy Targ was a royal town of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and was granted staple right in 1638.[3] In nearby Slovakia, the town is known as Nový Trh.
Nowy Targ is commonly called in the Goral dialect of Polish: Miasto, lit. 'the Town'. During the foundation period, the town was called the German name Neumarkt, and during the Austrian partition it was called Naj-Mark (Yiddish: נײַ־מאַרק) by local Jews.[4] During the German occupation of Poland, the authorities of the General Government introduced the official name of Neumarkt am Dohnst.
Timeline of town history
1308 - Cistercians receive a land grant to form new settlements in the mountain region. A border settlement called Stare Cło (German: Altzoll, English: Old Customs Post) is founded soon thereafter.[5]
1346 - Nowy Targ founded by King Casimir the Great, based on the Stare Cło settlement, and granted significant internal autonomy based on Magdeburg law.[6]
1487 - King Casimir IV Jagiellon grants the rights to two annual festivals, and a weekly market fair on Thursdays. (The weekly open-air market continues to this day, now on Thursday and Saturday mornings.)
1533 - Nowy Targ obtains a statute requiring merchants to pass through the city when crossing the border.
1601 - Great fire destroys the parochial church and city records.
1914 - Vladimir Ilyich Lenin is arrested as a possible spy in southern Poland by Austrian authorities; he is jailed in Nowy Targ for approximately 12 days.[7]
1939 - German forces invade on 1 September, at approx. 16:30.
1941 - Resistance movement called the Tatra Confederation formed in Nowy Targ.
1942 - Jewish ghetto liquidated by Nazis on 30 August.
1945 - The Red Army forces out German occupants on 29 January. 4 Jewish Holocaust survivors who return to the town are being murdered by locals and the rest flee.
1966 - Born Wojciech Wiercioch, Polish writer.
1979 - Pope John Paul II visits Nowy Targ on 8 June, during his first pilgrimage to Poland.
Geography
Nowy Targ is located in the heart of Podhale (one of the Goral Lands) at the altitude of 585–850 m above sea level (AMSL); latitude 49°28' N, longitude 20°01' E. Distance to the main urban agglomerations in Poland is: Warsaw – 376 km (234 mi), Łódź – 348 km (216 mi), Kraków – 84 km (52 mi), Gdańsk – 690 km (429 mi), Wrocław – 346 km (215 mi), Katowice – 157 km (98 mi), Kielce – 200 km (124 mi), Rzeszów – 214 km (133 mi), Szczecin – 727 km (452 mi), Białystok - 574 km (357 mi), Poznań – 475 km (295 mi), Częstochowa – 226 km (140 mi), Słupsk – 759 km (472 mi).
Climate
Due to its altitude, Nowy Targ is one of the coldest cities in Poland together with Suwałki and Zakopane. Winter usually lasts from late November to early April and between 90 and 110 days a year there is a snow cover. Air frost has been measured in every month of the year except for July. Summers are mild with occasional thunderstorms and high temperatures between 17 and 25 degrees Celsius. Hot days (over 30 °C (86 °F)) are rare, only occurring twice annually on average. Precipitation is heavy for Polish standards, varying between 900 millimeters (35 in) at the airport and 1,100 millimeters (43 in) in Kowaniec to around 1,350 millimeters (53 in) on Bukowina Miejska, the highest part of the city. The growing season equally varies between on average 150 days on Bukowina Miejska to around 200 days in the lower parts of the city. Nowy Targ is in the AHS Heat Zones 1-2 and USDA Hardiness Zone 4a to 5b, depending on the location.
According to the Köppen climate classification, Nowy Targ straddles the border of the Warm Summer Continental (Dfb) and Subarctic (Dfc) climates, with most of the city falling in the Dfb group. The Dfc climate is only found above 800 meters (2,600 ft)of elevation within Nowy Targ.
Climate data for Nowy Targ - Kowaniec, Poland (640 m)
Wooden church overseeing the city cemetery. Its origins date to the 15th century, although local legends describe it as founded in 1219.
Initially built in a gothic style, it was later repaired and rebuilt featuring, among others, a baroque altar piece and paintings, a rococo pulpit, and 18th-century organ and bell tower.
The church has been damaged by numerous fires and military attacks, and subsequently rebuilt and renovated. The interior retains its baroque character, especially in the altar and side chapels, although numerous pieces are replicas of wooden originals lost to fire. A painting of St. Catherine from 1892 dominates the main altar.
^ abFilip Sulimierski, Bronisław Chlebowski, Władysław Walewski: Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Warszawa 1880, tom VII, s. 307–310.
^Stan Lewicki, Historja handlu w Polsce na tle przywilejów handlowych: (prawo składu), Warszawa 1920, s. 139.
^Bordin, Hanan-Michael (2015). English-Yiddish dictionary of place-names (in English and Yiddish). Jerusalem – Tel Aviv: Bedek Media Group.
^Mieczysław Adamczyk, et al. Dzieje miasta Nowego Targu (History of the City of Nowy Targ), p.35, Podhalańskie Towarzystwo Przyjaciół Nauk: 1991.
^Mieczysław Adamczyk, et al., op. cit. Quoted after: J. Rafacz, Dzieje i ustrój Podhala Nowotarskiego za czasów dawnej Rzeczypospolitej,, p. 161, Warszawa: 1931.
