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Kętrzyn

Kętrzyn (AUDPl-Kętrzyn.ogg'kentszyn, until 1946 Rastembork; Rastenburg ˈʁastn̩bʊʁk) is a town in northeastern Poland with 27,478 inhabitants (2019). It is the capital of Kętrzyn County in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship. The town is known for the surrounding Masurian Lakeland and numerous monuments of historical value such as the Wolf's Lair in nearby Gierłoż, where an assassination attempt against Hitler was made in 1944. The original inhabitants of the region were the Balt tribe of the Aesti, mentioned by Tacitus in his Germania (AD 98). The town, known in German as Rastenburg and in Polish as Rastembork, was established in 1329 in the State of the Teutonic Knights and was granted town rights in 1357 by Henning Schindekop. After the Battle of Grunwald, in 1410, the mayor surrendered the town to Poland, however, it fell back to the Teutonic Knights in 1411. In 1440, the town joined the anti-Teutonic Prussian Confederation. Upon the request of the Confederation, King Casimir IV Jagiellon incorporated the region and town to the Kingdom of Poland in 1454. The town then recognized the Polish King as the rightful ruler and the townspeople sent their representative to Königsberg to pay homage to the King. After the Thirteen Years’ War (1454–1466) the town was part of Poland as a fief held by the Teutonic Order's state and, from 1525 to 1701, it was part of the Duchy of Prussia, a Polish fief until 1657. In the second half of the 17th century, Poles constituted around a half of the town's population, the other half being Germans. In 1667, a Polish church school was established. In 1701 the town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and subsequently, in 1871, part of Germany. During the Seven Years' War, from 1758 to 1762, the town was occupied by the Russians, in June 1807, throughout the Napoleonic wars, the division of General Jan Henryk Dąbrowski was stationed in the town. Following the unsuccessful Polish November Uprising, in 1832–1833, Polish insurgents, including several officers, were interned in the town.

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