Kalisz

Roman-era finds suggest that a settlement here was a stop on the Amber Road, and Kalisz is often identified with the Calisia mentioned by Ptolemy in the 2nd century, though some historians doubt the link. The medieval town probably began in the 9th century as a castellany and small fort at Zawodzie. It received town rights between 1253 and 1260, and in 1264 Bolesław the Pious issued the Statute of Kalisz here, a charter protecting Jews that drew Jewish migration to Poland for centuries. Capital of a voivodeship from 1314, it resisted the Teutonic Knights in 1331, and Casimir the Great made peace with the Order here in 1343. Duke Mieszko III the Old was buried in the town.

A Jesuit college opened in 1584, but Poznań gradually overtook Kalisz. A fire in 1792 destroyed much of the centre, and in 1793 Prussia took the town. After 1815 it was a provincial capital under Russian rule, close to the Prussian border; trade and industry grew, Chopin visited three times, the railway reached it in 1902, and it became one of Poland's leading centres of piano making. In August 1914 German forces shelled and burned the city: of about 68,000 inhabitants, only 5,000 remained a year later.

Rebuilt in the 1920s, with a new town hall opened in 1925, Kalisz had about 81,000 people in 1939, a third of them Jewish. Under German occupation hundreds of Poles were murdered in the Winiary forest and some 30,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. It was a voivodeship capital again from 1975 to 1998, became a diocese in 1992 and was visited by Pope John Paul II in 1997.

Kalisz is proud of its age, and the Piast stronghold at Zawodzie, with its summer fairs, Kupala Night and Piast Feast, keeps the early medieval past in view. The city's theatre traces its history to the troupe Wojciech Bogusławski established in 1801, and since 1961 it has hosted the Kalisz Theatre Meetings. The Kalisz Philharmonic and the International Jazz Pianists Festival both date from 1974, and in 1969 the city staged Poland's first rock festival.

Religion is central to its public life. The city is the seat of a Catholic diocese, and the collegiate basilica is the sanctuary of St Joseph, with a chapel remembering the priests who died at Dachau. There are 19 Catholic churches as well as Protestant and Orthodox congregations. The Jewish community, which made up around a third of the town for much of the 19th and early 20th centuries, was destroyed in the Holocaust.

Sport has a special place: handball was first played in Poland in the district of Szczypiorno, which gave the game its Polish name, szczypiorniak, and MKS Kalisz plays in the top division. The women's volleyball club Calisia has won the national title four times, and the rowing club founded in 1894 is one of the oldest in Poland.

About 98,000 people lived in Kalisz at the end of 2025, down from a peak of about 110,000 in 2000; it is the second-largest city in Greater Poland and forms a conurbation with Ostrów Wielkopolski and Nowe Skalmierzyce. The city is divided into 23 residential districts, many named after the villages, farms and colonies absorbed since 1853. The historic centre sits on two islands in the Prosna, with the New Town on the right bank.

There is little heavy industry, but several large employers: the Winiary food plant, part of the Nestlé group, the food company Colian, the Big Star jeans factory and two aircraft-engine plants, WSK-Kalisz and a branch of Pratt & Whitney Canada. Piano making was long the city's speciality; the Calisia piano factory went out of business in 2007. The University of Kalisz is the main higher-education institution, alongside branches of Poznań's universities.

Winter smog is a recurring problem: westerly winds, the deep river valley, coal heating and traffic often push pollution above permitted limits.

Kalisz's best-known speciality is andruty kaliskie, thin and lightly sweet wafers first recorded at the beginning of the 19th century in the city and the Kalisz Land. They were added to Poland's list of traditional products in 2005 and have been protected by the European Union since 2009, and they are the usual edible souvenir of a visit. The city's sweet-making history includes a gingerbread and biscuit factory founded in 1892.

Everyday menus are those of Greater Poland and of Poland as a whole: pierogi, gołąbki — cabbage leaves stuffed with meat — kotlet schabowy, the breaded pork cutlet, and soups such as żurek, a sour rye soup, and rosół, a clear broth that traditionally opens a three-course dinner. The city also has milk bars, bar mleczny, which serve cheap home cooking.

Eating out centres on the Main Market Square and the streets of the old town such as Śródmiejska. On St Martin's Day, 11 November, the St Martin's croissant with white poppy-seed filling, traditional in Poznań and parts of Greater Poland, appears in bakeries across the region.