The city of Nowy Targ, Poland
The city of Nowy Targ, which means "new
market", has existed here in Poland since the thirteenth
century. Built where several trade routes intersect and two rivers
(the Bialy and Czarny Dunajec) merge, the town has been important
to the Podhale region for many centuries. The original town square
or "Rynek", seen in part in the photos above, is still
the basis for the layout of the town's street grid which remains
today. A huge and famous open-air market still operates on the
edge of town Thursdays and Sundays as it always has, drawing Slovaks
from over the border and Poles from around the region to buy and
sell. In 1655 the town fell to the invading Swedes, in 1770 to
the Austrians. By 1938 it had grown to over 11,000 inhabitants,
but with the coming of WWII it fell to the Germans and became
"Neumarkt". It was then home to many partisan fighters
who conspired in secret to defeat the Nazis. After the war many
factories and businesses were built to take advantage of the old
trade routes and the city grew to over 34,000 as it stands presently.
Many people from all over Podhale are employed today in Nowy Targ.
In June of 1979, Pope John Paul II came to the small airport in
town and tens of thousands of Goral folk dressed in native costume
came from all over Podhale to greet him. He was later named as
an honorary citizen of Nowy Targ and has since visited twice more,
always to a very large crowd. The town is the site of the historic
old wooden church of St. Anna and the Baroque church of St. Katarzyna.
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