Saturday, December 29, 2007

BNIN entry: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego –1881




Bnin

(1) a town, district of Srem, located between Lake Bnin and Kornik near the highway from Kostrzyn to Srem, 23 km Southeast of Poznan; 126 homes; 1303 inhabitants, 263 Evangelicals, 1040 Catholics, 283 illiterates; the only town in the principality of Poznan without a Jewish population. The inhabitants are mainly occupied with agriculture. The district court is located in Srem. The parish church belongs to the deanery of Sroda; the Protestant church belongs to the diocese of Poznan. There is an elementary school, a post office, and four market places. Bnin belongs to Count Jan Dialynski; it is the ancestral home of the ancient Greater Poland Bninski family of the crest Lodz. Prior to the Bninski family, the princes of Greater Poland owned it. The chronicler Baszko, who continued the Chronicles of Bogufal, says that in the year 1253 Boleslaw and Przemyslaw the First met at the Giecz castle and divided Greater Poland. Boleslaw received, among other towns, Bnin. It is possible that those princes had already established a church in Bnin. It is not known when the town became private property. In the 15th century Andrzej of Bnin, Bishop of Poznan, heir of the town, had already erected a stone church. In 1775 a lady named Potulicka from the Dzialynski family, the heiress at that time, rebuilt the church (which had decayed to the ground) and gave it a completely new form. From the monuments in the church, carved on a rock, there is only the founder, Andrzej of Bnin, with crosier and mitre. Long ago there were still other churches: in Blazejewo, in Mieczewo, and in Radzewo. Behind the church over the lake are excavations upon which undoubtedly stood a fortified castle. In the lake are traces of aquatic lake dwellings. Municipality Bnin-Prowent, District of Srem, has two locations: (1) manor house, (2) village of Bnin-Prowent; 14 homes, 118 inhabitants; 13 evangelicals; 105 Catholics; no illiterates.

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego – Warsaw (1881, Vol. 1, p. 255)
Provided by Joseph F. Martin