Send Gift Baskets to Ostroleka, Poland

This city is named after a sand-mud plain on the left bank of the Narew River that regularly floods in springtime. In the 11th or 12th century, a small fort was built on an island just one kilometer west of the modern city center. Fortifications along the Narew River were sparse then, and the defense was one of the few. In time, a village developed around the fort and is often considered the earliest settlement of Ostro łęka. Although no exact date is known for Ostrobothka’s founding, its first mention as a town appears in Duke Siemowit III’s Province Act of 1373. Therefore, 1373 is the most commonly associated date with the town’s establishment.

At the start of the 15th Century, Ostrołęka grew into an important economic center in the Duchy of Masovia for trade with the neighboring Teutonic Order. The most commonly traded items were wood, amber, and honey. Upon incorporation into the Polish Kingdom in 1526, the Duchy became part of the kingdom. Ostroka experienced an economic boom during this time, usually known as the Golden Age. A folwark was formed at this time by Queen Bona Sforza in Pomian, a nearby settlement at the time, which is now well within the modern city’s boundaries. In 1564 and 1571, three significant catastrophes marked the end of the Golden Age, which lasted for approximately 40 years. The town and surrounding areas were seriously depopulated by an epidemic in 1564. A fire tore through the village the same year, burning most of it to the ground. A second epidemic struck in 1571 before the town had time to recover from the two previous catastrophes, further depopulating the area and marking the end of the town’s Golden Age. However, the town was rebuilt within 20 years, including construction of the city’s first school. By the late 1590s, the town became the center of a large administrative district of approximately 1,980.5 km2 in size, located in the Masovian Voivodeship of the Greater Poland Province.