Międzyrzecz

Międzyrzecz (mJen'dzyżecz; Meserici, Meseritz) is a town in western Poland, on the Obra and Paklica river, with 17,667 inhabitants (2020). The capital of Gmina Międzyrzecz and Międzyrzecz County. Since the Local Government Reorganization Act of 1998, it has been situated in Lubusz Voivodeship. In 1975–1998 Międzyrzecz was part of Gorzów Voivodeship. The town limits cover . The town's name refers to Mesopotamia ("between rivers", Międzyrzecze) and its location at the confluence of the Obra River and the Paklica tributary, in the west of the historic Greater Poland region. About halfway between the towns of Skwierzyna and Świebodzin, it is situated south of the regional capital Gorzów Wielkopolski and north of Zielona Góra. The municipal area is in a particularly green part of Poland. Extensive forests and numerous lakes can be found in the vicinity, including two Natura 2000 protected areas south of the town. Międzyrzecz is the seventh largest town in Lubusz Voivodeship. The number of inhabitants has slightly been on the decrease since the 1990s. The settlement on the road leading from Magdeburg to Gniezno was first mentioned as Mezerici by the medieval chronicler Thietmar of Merseburg in the course of the 1005 campaign of King Henry II of Germany into the Polish lands of Duke Bolesław I Chrobry. The Old Polish name Mezyriecze first appeared in the 1112/16 Gesta principum Polonorum by Gallus Anonymus. It remained a western outpost of the Duchy of Greater Poland, established by the 1138 Testament of Bolesław III Krzywousty, after the loss of Lubusz Land in the mid-13th century and was incorporated into the Poznań Voivodeship of the Polish Crown upon the coronation of King Władysław I the Elbow-high in 1320. Under the rule of his successor Casimir III the Great (1333–1370) German settlers began to migrate into the area in the course of the Ostsiedlung. Town privileges were confirmed by King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1485. Międzyrzecz was a royal town of the Polish Crown and the seat of starosts (local royal administrators).