EncycloReader

Kalisz, the chief town of the above government, situated in 51° 46′ N. and 18° E., 147 m. by rail W.S.W. of Warsaw, on the banks of the Prosna, which there forms the boundary of Prussia. Pop. (1871), 18,088; (1897), 21,680, of whom 37% were Jews. It is one of the oldest and finest cities of Poland, is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, and possesses a castle, a teachers’ institute and a large public park. The industrial establishments comprise a brewery, and factories for ribbons, cloth and sugar, and tanneries.

Kalisz is identified with the Calisia of Ptolemy, and its antiquity is indicated by the abundance of coins and other objects of ancient art which have been discovered on the site, as well as by the numerous burial mounds existing in the vicinity. It was the scene of the decisive victory of Augustus the Strong of Poland over the Swedes on the 29th of October 1706, of several minor conflicts in 1813, and of the friendly meeting of the Russian and Prussian troops in 1835, in memory of which an iron obelisk was erected in the town by Nicholas I. in 1841. The treaty of 1813 between Russia and Prussia was signed here.