Kujawy

Kujawy, lowland region of central Poland. It is bounded on the northeast by the Vistula River between Włocławek and Bydgoszcz and on the southwest by the Noteć River. First appearing in written sources in 1136, the name Kujawy referred then to the area closest to the Vistula and only later was used to also designate the region near Lake Gopło (on the Noteć).

When King Bolesław III (the Wry-Mouthed), who ruled Poland in 1102–38, divided his kingdom among his sons in 1138, Kujawy became part of the Mazovian-Kujavian duchy; later it was separated from Mazovia (1233) and subdivided into several duchies. At the beginning of the 14th century, however, one of its dukes, Władysław I (the Short), undertook the reunification of Poland, and by 1363 all the Kujavian duchies had been reincorporated into two provinces (województwa)—Brześć Kujawski (the southeastern portion) and Inowrocław (the northwestern portion).

Prussia gained control of Inowrocław through the First Partition of Poland (1772) and acquired Brześć Kujawski through the Second Partition (1793). The two provinces were subsequently reunited as the province of Bydgoszcz and incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, which was created by Napoleon in 1807. But in 1815, when the duchy was dismembered, only the eastern section of Kujawy was included in the newly formed Congress Kingdom of Poland; the remainder was returned to Prussia. In 1918 newly independent Poland reabsorbed all of Kujawy, dividing that region between the provinces of Pomerania (Pomorze) and Warsaw; in 1945 the entire area was included in the province of Bydgoszcz.

Kujawy now occupies a part of the Kujawsko-Pomorskie province. The region is distinguished by its productive agriculture and food-processing industry. Its main mineral resources are salt and limestone. Important urban and industrial centres are Bydgoszcz, Inowrocław, and Włocławek.