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![[Wagrowiec city flag]](../images/p/pl-wp-wa.gif)
image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 Nov 2008
Wągrowiec is an important rail and road junction. There are several notable industries in the town, including the machinery factories (a branch of the Hipolit Cegielski factory in Poznań and a branch of the Zremb machinery factory), major food processing plants (a mill, meat canning factory and a milk yard) and a furniture factory. The town is also a centre of tourism, with several hotels along the shores of the lake.
The town was founded as a small village called Prostynie by the Cistercian
monks from the monastery in Łekno in 1319.
In 1381 the name of Wągrowiec is mentioned for the first time in connection
with the place. By that time the town received city laws, most likely modeled
after the Magdeburg Law. At the end of the 16th century, King Władysław
Jagiello gave the city the privileges of market and fair, and in 1396 the
Cistercian monastery was moved in.
The town soon started to prosper. In the 15th and 16th centuries it
was an important centre of trade, commerce, and manufacture (mostly textiles).
This prosperity came to a halt during the Deluge, when in 1656 the town
was captured, pillaged and burnt by the forces of Charles X of Sweden.
After the Partitions of Poland, Wągrowiec in 1793 was annexed by Kingdom
of Prussia and was confiscated from the Cistercians in 1797. Initially
a part of the newly created province of South Prussia, it was in 1807 transferred
to the Duchy of Warsaw, a state allied to the Napoleonic France.
After Napoleon's defeat and the Congress of Vienna in 1815, Wągrowiec
was again annexed by Prussia; this time it was made a part of the autonomous
Grand Duchy of Poznań.
In 1835 the Cistercian monastic order was dissolved, and its property
was confiscated by the Prussian authorities.
On February 9, 1849, the autonomy of the Duchy was cancelled, and Wągrowiec
- under the Germanized name of Wongrowitz - became part of the province
of Posen. In 1888 a railroad line linking Wągrowiec with Poznań was opened.
After World War I, Wągrowiec found itself again within the borders
of a Polish state, the Republic of Poland.
This did not happen without a struggle, though: in the years 1918-19
Polish inhabitants of Wągrowiec fought in the Greater Poland Uprising.
Following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the end of the Polish Defence War of 1939, the town was annexed to the German Reich. Many of its Polish inhabitants were expelled to the more easterly areas of the General Government as part of the implementation of 'Lebensraum policies. Wągrowiec was liberated in January 1945. (wiki)
Arms and flag adopted on September 28, 2002 (resolution # 35/2002).
"Arms: the shield divided into four fields: on the upper right field
(gold) an armored arm with the silver sword.
On the lower right field (silver-white) a red stylized monogram "W".
On the upper left field (blue) an image of the Cistercian monk and
on the lower left field a silver axe with the blade turned to the right.
The letter "W" corresponds to the name of the town and the axe comes
from the noble Coat of Arms "Topór".
Flag: rectangular piece of cloth in the ratio of 5:8, identical on both
sides and composed of two equal horizontal bands: white over blue.
On the left side of the white band, near the hoist, the Arms of the
town are placed.
The ratio of the height of the Arms to the length of the flag is 2:5."
Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 Nov 2008
![[Wagrowiec city Coat of Arms]](../images/p/pl-wp)wa.gif)
image by Chrystian Kretowicz, 25 Nov 2008