Elbląg
Elbląg
Elblag River and the Old Town
Flag
Coat of arms
Elbląg
Coordinates: 54°5′40″N 19°24′15″E /
54.09444°N 19.40417°E / 54.09444; 19.40417
Country
Poland
Voivodeship
Warmian-Masurian
County
city county
Established
1237
City rights
1246
Government
- Mayor
Henryk Słonina
Area
- Total
80 km2 (30.9 sq mi)
Population (2006)
- Total
127,055
- Density
1,588.2/km2 (4,113.4/
sq mi)
Time zone
CET (UTC+1)
- Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code
82-300 to 82-315
Area code(s)
+48 055
Car plates
NE
Website
http://www.umelblag.pl
Elbląg [ˈɛlblɔnk] (
listen) (German: Elbing (
listen); Lithuanian: Elbinga) is a city in
northern Poland with 127,892 inhabitants
(2006). It is the capital of Elbląg County and
has been assigned to the Warmian-Masurian
Voivodeship since 1999. Before then it was
the
capital
of
Elbląg
Voivodeship
(1975–1998) and a county seat in Gdańsk
Voivodeship (1945–1975). The city is a port
on the Elbląg River which flows into the Vis-
tula Lagoon about 10 km to the north, thus
giving the city access to the Baltic Sea via
the Russian-controlled Strait of Baltiysk.
It was first mentioned as "Ilfing" in The
Voyages of Ohthere and Wulfstan which was
written in Anglo-Saxon in King Alfred’s reign
using information from a Viking who had vis-
ited the area.
During the Middle Ages, the Old Prussian
settlement of Truso was located at Lake
Drużno near the current site of Elbląg in his-
torical Pogesania;
the settlement burned
down in the 10th century.[1] The Teutonic
Knights conquered the region and the inhab-
itants dispersed in the process. The Teutonic
Order built a castle and founded Elbing at
the lake with a population mostly from
Lübeck; today the much smaller lake does
not reach the city any more. After the defeat
of the Teutonic Knights and the destruction
of the castle by the inhabitants, the city suc-
cessively was under the sovereignty of the
Polish crown (1466), the Kingdom of Prussia
(1772), and Germany (1871). Elbing was
heavily damaged in World War II, its German
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
E