Piotrków Trybunalski

Piotrków Trybunalski is second biggest city in the Łódź Voivodeship of Poland with around 80,000 inhabitants. It is the capital of Piotrków County and it’s almost 800 years old. The city itself was portrayed in the movie Jacob the Liar starring Robin Williams.

. . . Piotrków Trybunalski . . .

According to tradition – not confirmed by historical sources – Piotrków was founded by Piotr Wlostowic, a powerful 12th century magnate from Silesia. The name of the city comes from the name Peter translated into Polish (Piotr), in a diminutive form (Piotrek). The town has been known in Yiddish as פּעטריקעװ or Petrikev, in German as Petrikau, and in Russian as Петроков or Petrokov.

At first a market town and a place of the princes’ tribunals (in the 13th and 15th centuries), Piotrków became an administrative centre (the capital of the district since 1418), and in the later centuries it also became an important political centre in Poland. While the importance of Piotrków in the political life of the country had contributed to its development in the 16th century, the city declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, due to fires, epidemics, wars against Sweden, and finally the Partitions of Poland.

Piotrków had the first ghetto for Jews in occupied Poland, built as early as October 1939. Approximately 25,000 people from Piotrków and the nearby towns and villages were imprisoned there. 22,000 were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp, while 3,000 were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps.

Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport (LCJ ^IATA) is nearest international airport (about 50 km), but better choice is the largest Polish Warsaw Frédéric Chopin Airport (WAW ^IATA) (about 160 km).

• 51.41053719.6849471 Piotrków Trybunalski Railway Station is a terminal station for domestic trains. There are great (but slow) train links from all major Polish cities.

The schedule of trains in Poland

Piotrków is located in junction of roads:

• road A1; E75Gdańsk – Łódź – Piotrków Trybunalski – Częstochowa – Katowice
• road 8; E67 from state border with Lithuania in Budzisko trought Warsaw – Piotrków – Wrocław and finally to state border with Czech Republic in Kudowa-Zdrój.
• road  12 from state border with Germany in Łęknica trought Leszno – Kalisz – Piotrków – Radom – Lublin and state border with Ukraine in Beredyszcze

. . . Piotrków Trybunalski . . .

. . . Piotrków Trybunalski . . .