Stryków

Stryków
Church in the centre of the town
Flag Coat of arms
Stryków
Coordinates: 51°54′4″N 19°36′39″E / 51.90111°N 19.61083°E / 51.90111; 19.61083
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Łódź
County	Zgierz
Gmina	Stryków
Government
• Mayor	Andrzej Jankowski
Area
• Total	8.15 km2 (3.15 sq mi)
Population (2012)
• Total	3,552
• Density	440/km2 (1,100/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	95-010
Car plates	EZG
Website	http://www.strykow.pl

Stryków [ˈstrɨkuf] (German: 1943-45 Strickau) is a town in central Poland, in Łódź Voivodeship, in Zgierz County. It has 3,552 inhabitants (2012).

The first mention of Stryków was in 1387. Stryków was a village situated on the route from Zgierz to Lowicz. Stryków received city rights in 1394 from King Wladyslaw Jagiello, at the request of the heir of the town founder, Strykowskiego Deresława. In the middle of the eighteenth century, the city had 45 artisans (13 clothiers, 5 merchants and shopkeepers, and 5 others) and was a local center of commerce and crafts. It was also a center of aristocratic wealth.

In 1744 the town received the privilege of organizing eight fairs a year. Stryków belonged to medium-sized cities. Textile manufacturing was attempted by the then owner Felix Czarnecki but without success. The town economy remained centered on crafts and agriculture. Contemporary activities have left traces of the old town in the form of an existing semi-circular square in the city center.

After the Second Partition of Poland, Strykow was in the Prussian sector, and later in the period 1807-15 in the Duchy of Warsaw and then in the Russian-controlled Polish Kingdom. In the nineteenth century Stryków lost its civic rights. The reason for the stagnation of population growth was the rapid development of nearby Łódź and rapidly growing Pabianice and Zgierz.

In 1902 Stryków was linked by rail to Warsaw and Łódź, which was followed by population growth. This rail link was closed for some years but was reopened in October 2011. Shortly after receiving civic independence in 1923, Strykow recovered as a town, with the economy based on shoemaking and tailoring.

In Stryków yarn and textiles were produced, and there was a brickyard. The town in 1939 had approximately 5,000 inhabitants. Hostilities, including the mass extermination of Polish Jews, the use of Poles for forced labor by the Nazis and those who left toward the end of the war of German ethnic origin (to the west with retreating German Army), led to a 45% reduction in the population. Northwest of the center of Stryków, are the remains of the Jewish cemetery, where the last burial took place in 1946.