Nowy Targ

Nowy Targ [ˈnɔvɨ ˈtark] (Latin: Novum Forum, Slovak: Nový Targ, German: Neumarkt) is a town in southern Poland with 34,000 inhabitants (2006). It is the historical capital of the Podhale region. The town is situated in a valley beneath the Gorce Mountains featuring Gorce National Park established in 1981, at the confluence of rivers Biały and Czarny Dunajec. Administratively, it is in Nowy Targ County in the Lesser Poland Voivodeship. It was previously in Nowy Sącz Voivodeship (1975–1998).

Timeline of Nowy Targ 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.
 * 1346 - Nowy Targ founded by King Casimir the Great, based on the Stare Cło settlement, and granted significant internal autonomy based on Magdeburg law.


 * 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.)

Source: Wikipedia, Primary Source of BartoszC
 * 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.
 * 1656 - Swedish troops sack the town during the Deluge.
 * 1710 - Another fire consumes 41 houses and the church.
 * 1770 - Nowy Targ annexed by Austria (see: Partitions of Poland).
 * 1886 - City Hall opens.
 * 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.
 * 1918 - The region rejoins the restored Poland after World War I.
 * 1933 - Polish president Ignacy Mościcki visits.
 * 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.
 * 1966 - Born Wojciech Wiercioch, Polish writer.
 * 1979 - Pope John Paul II visits Nowy Targ on 8 June, during his first pilgrimage to Poland.