Editing Piła (section)

==History==
===In the Kingdom of Poland===
====Overview====
Piła traces its origins to an old fishing village.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.pila.pl/content.php?cms_id=55&lang=pl&p=p1&s=s7 |title=Piła Oficjalny Serwis Miasta-Historia |access-date=2011-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110906162226/http://www.pila.pl/content.php?cms_id=55&lang=pl&p=p1&s=s7 |archive-date=2011-09-06 }}</ref> Following the [[Germans|German]] [[colonist]] movement of the 13th century, and particularly after the end of the [[first Mongol invasion of Poland]] of 1241, many German colonizers came to this densely wooded area of Poland. General immigration of German settlers diminished, however, when Poland, under King [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]] (1447–1492), finally defeated the [[Teutonic Knights|Teutonic Order]] in 1466.

====Early history====
A [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] settlement of [[Lumberjack|woodcutters]] in the [[Fisherman|fishing village]] Piła may have existed before any of the later villages and surrounding towns of the area were established. Thus, in the 14th century Piła grew to some extent because of its position on the Gwda, a mere {{convert|11|km|0|abbr=off}} from where it joins the river Notec. Yet, the settlement developed less than others that were on such major water routes as the rivers [[Warta]] or Vistula. Piła's simple layout of unpaved streets and primitive clay and timber houses gave little protection to its inhabitants and was still far from becoming a commercially interesting locale. If one were to credit a Privilegium ([[charter]]) of the early 1380s as evidence, a document associated with the building of a church in Piła and ascribed to the very young Queen [[Jadwiga of Poland]]—a copied document that still existed in the archives of the town before 1834—then that period could well be regarded as the time when the village of Piła/Snydemole was elevated to the status of town. The recurring double naming Piła-Snydemole may be because two originally separate localities took their name from the water-powered sawmill that had been part of the town's raison d'être from the beginning.

Documented references to Snydemole and Piła are reportedly found in parish church sources of 1449, where there is mention of a sawmill and of the name of the current [[wojewoda]] (governor) Paul. Evidence also exists of a letter from 1456 by the [[Margraviate of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]] [[Frederick II, Elector of Brandenburg|Friedrich II Hohenzollern]] who had bought the Neumark region from the [[Teutonic Order]] in 1455. The letter is addressed to bishop Andrzej of Poznań and to Łukasz Górka, the local [[Starosta]], the royal constable of [[Wielkopolska]]. The elector complained that in prevailing peace times some burghers of Snydemole and Piła were making raids on his lands. This accusation may tend to give additional credence to the earlier claim that Queen Jadwiga in the 1380s was indeed the founder of the town of Piła.

====City rights====
[[File:Kazimierz IV Jagiellonczyk (275186).jpg|thumb|upright|left|During the reign of King [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]] Piła became a royal city of the Kingdom of Poland]]
Until 1480 Piła was a town owned by the nobility, belonging to Maciej Opaliński who later presented his holdings to King [[Casimir IV Jagiellon]], at which time Piła became a [[royal city in Poland|royal town]]. Administratively it was located in the Poznań County in the [[Poznań Voivodeship (14th century to 1793)|Poznań Voivodeship]] in the [[Greater Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Greater Poland Province]] of the Kingdom of Poland.<ref>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=Atlas historyczny Polski. Wielkopolska w drugiej połowie XVI wieku. Część I. Mapy, plany|year=2017|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=Instytut Historii [[Polish Academy of Sciences|Polskiej Akademii Nauk]]|page=1a}}</ref> It is known that ten years later the burghers of the town were accused and penalized for tax evasion that had been occurring over a period of five years. However, King [[Sigismund I the Old]]—during whose reign immigration of numerous [[Jews]] from the [[Iberian peninsula]], [[Kingdom of Bohemia|Bohemia]] and German states was encouraged—bestowed municipal rights upon the town of Piła on 4 March 1513, a landmark decision. This was an important achievement for Piła since it gave the burghers not only status, but also the rights to self-administration and its own judiciary. The administration of the town's affairs was now in the hands of three legislative bodies, elected from among the burghers. They were the council with the mayor, jury court and the elders of the guilds. Only the position of the [[Wójt]] remained in the hands of the crown or its deputy, the Starosta. The sovereign, however, remained the ultimate judge, warlord and owner of the land. Being free from the arbitrariness of a [[Castellan]] or of [[Wojewoda]] (governor of the province)—Piła's town folk took advantage of the town's privileges by owning property, carrying on any trade and enjoying the right to hold much needed [[Trade fair|market fairs]].

====16th century====
Economic circumstances or personal feuds may have been responsible for the frequent changes of ownership of the town, as Piła was 'purchased' in 1518 by Hieronymus von Bnin; the document outlining the deed and ownership during his lifetime was given to him by King Sigismund I in 1525. Following the demise of Bnin, the town became the property of the dynasty of the mighty Gorka family. This family, secretly leaning toward [[Protestantism]] and in power until the 17th century, included some of the wealthiest landowners and most influential [[Szlachta|nobles of Poland]] and was known to be benevolent to their town's folk.

In 1548 Piła obtained a privilege that banned any foreign [[Pottery|potter]] from the town's markets, and in 1561 a fishing privilege was obtained. Piła was part of the [[Poznań Voivodeship (14th century to 1793)|Poznań Voivodeship]], the region divided into the four ''starostwa'' (land holdings) of [[Poznań]], [[Kościan]], [[Wschowa]] and [[Wałcz]], the latter encompassing the Starosty Ujscie-Piła, the area between the rivers Gwda, Notec and Drage. ''Stara'' Piła, the old Piła, a town that never had walls, was slow to grow.

[[File:Anonymous Stephen Báthory (detail) 02.jpg|thumb|upright|King [[Stephen Báthory]] confirmed old privileges of Piła in 1576 and moved the weekly market from Thursdays to Mondays]]
By the middle of the 16th century, many German Protestant craftsmen and traders, driven out of [[Bohemia]] by religious persecution during the [[Reformation]], settled in numerous towns in the region. Some may have settled in Piła too, yet in 1563 the small town had no more than 750 inhabitants. They are known to have lived in 153 houses, primitively built, primarily with timber and clay, covered with straw and grouped mainly around the Old Market. When King [[Stephen Báthory of Poland]] confirmed two of the town's privileges on 3 September 1576, the burghers were granted the right to hold their weekly market on a Monday (instead of Thursday),<ref name=sgk1>{{cite book|author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.-->|title=Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom VIII|year=1887|language=pl|location=Warszawa|page=152}}</ref> an important feat. Over the following 150 years, numerous privileges and charters were re-issued by the Polish crown, mainly as a result of loss by fire. By 1591 a statute allowing apprenticeships in various trades was obtained. In 1593 King [[Sigismund III Vasa]] confirmed old privileges of Piła.<ref name=sgk1/>

====17th century: Queen Constance reshaping the town====
When the widowed [[Sigismund III Vasa]] married princess [[Constance of Austria|Constance]], an Austrian archduchess from the [[House of Habsburg]], in 1605, he presented the town of Piła, together with the lands of the domain of Ujście, as a wedding gift to his new bride. She became responsible for changing Piła in several ways over the next few decades. Acting in concert with the tenets of the prevailing [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]] [[Counter Reformation]], the queen first attended to what seemed closest to her heart. She saw to it that numerous Protestant churches in the region of [[Wałcz]], the most German of areas where seventeen Protestant villages existed, be handed over to the Roman Catholic clergy, hounding many a German Protestant burgher in the process.

After one of the town's frequent fires in 1619, the queen—in a benevolent gesture and as her 'present' to the burghers of Piła—appropriated funds from the large estate to have the old burnt-out wooden Catholic Church rebuilt. Alas, given the random, close proximity of houses to one another, town fires occurred with such regularity in numerous communities during that period that in 1626 another devastating fire broke out in Piła. This time the entire town was laid to ashes, including the newly built church. Constance subsequently charged her secretary Samuel Targowski on 15 July 1626 to survey what was left of the town.  His proposal for a new layout was to be drastic for [[Christians|Christian]] burghers; to the developing Jewish community it was most consequential and of particular detriment. Constance also decided on a distinct segregation of Jews and Christians. The Jewish community was to resettle in a [[ghetto]], what was to become a virtual town within a town. The new site, from thereon often referred to as ''Judenstadt'', the Jews' town. To demarcate the newly created ghetto, the decree called for a sizable trench to be dug to surround the Jewish quarters where feasible; otherwise a tall wooden fence had to serve to close in the area completely.

[[File:Piła dom staszica.JPG|thumb|right|Birthplace of [[Stanisław Staszic]], a leading figure of [[Enlightenment in Poland|Polish Enlightenment]]]]
A new church arose in 1628. Unlike most other buildings in town, the choir room section of this edifice was to remain intact in its original form until 1945. New houses were constructed of brick and stone and the town was reconstructed in plain [[Renaissance architecture|Renaissance]] style. Polish Kings confirmed old privileges of Piła again in 1633 and 1650, and granted new privileges in 1660, 1670 and 1688, which were then confirmed in 1716.<ref>''Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom VIII'', pp. 152–153 (in Polish)</ref> On 24 July 1655, during [[The Deluge (Polish history)|the Deluge]], [[Swedish Empire|Swedish]] troops captured the predominantly [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] town and destroyed most of its buildings and infrastructure. During October 1656, a Polish troupe of [[Stefan Czarniecki]]'s army sought retribution upon the largely German and Protestant burghers of Piła, accusing them of collusion with the Swedes. During the consecutive [[Great Northern War|Great Northern]] and [[Seven Years' War]]s similar havoc was visited upon the remaining inhabitants. To add to the plight, it was discovered that the [[Black Death|plague]] had been carried in.

===In the Kingdom of Prussia and the Duchy of Warsaw===
With the signing of the definitive treaty to divide Poland between [[Kingdom of Prussia|Prussia]], [[Habsburg monarchy|Austria]] and [[Russian Empire|Russia]] in 1772, the [[Partitions of Poland|First Partition of Poland]] was accomplished. Piła became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and was officially renamed ''Schneidemühl''. After [[Frederick II of Prussia]] signed the Ownership Protocol of his Polish lands on 13 September 1772, he created out of the northern parts of Greater Poland and [[Kuyavia]] the ''Département Westpreussen''. Part of that area was later also known as the ''[[Netzedistrikt]]'', a governmental administrative district consisting of a wide strip of land both sides of the river Noteć (Netze), stretching from it source north of [[Września]] (Wreschen) to the border of the Neumark. Frederick II initiated new German Protestant colonization in opposition to Polish Catholics.<ref>''Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom VIII'', p. 153</ref>

In the year 1781, another huge fire occurred, which devastated half the town. Although Prussian authorities had brought in [[chimney sweep]]s and regulations that spelled out fire emergency tasks, hardly anyone in the town was prepared for a major conflagration. 44 houses, 37 stables and 17 barns burned down.

In 1793 Piła was recaptured for a short period by a Polish army led by Colonel Wyganowski. Following Prussia's defeat in the [[Battle of Jena-Auerstedt|battle of Jena]] and [[Greater Poland uprising (1806)]], and after signing the [[Peace of Tilsit]] of 7 July 1807, Piła became part of the semi-independent Polish [[Duchy of Warsaw]].

===19th century: industrialization and railway hub===
[[File:Album widokow przedstawiajacych miejsca historyczne Ksiestwa Poznanskiego i Prus Zachodnich 1880 (5414442) (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|19th-century lithograph of the city]]
After the [[Congress of Vienna]] of 1815, Prussia regained the town once again. Under the Prussian administrative reforms of 1816–18, the town became part of the [[Kreis Kolmar in Posen|Kolmar District]] within the [[Bromberg (region)|Bromberg Region]] of the [[Grand Duchy of Posen]]. On 1 January 1818 Kreis Kolmar was established, with its seat in Piła / Schneidemühl, which in 1821 was moved to [[Chodzież]]. One of the main escape routes for insurgents of the unsuccessful Polish [[November Uprising]] from partitioned Poland to the [[Great Emigration]] led through the city.<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Umiński|first=Janusz|year=1998|title=Losy internowanych na Pomorzu żołnierzy powstania listopadowego|magazine=Jantarowe Szlaki|volume=4 |language=pl|issue=250|page=16}}</ref>

The Polish language was restricted from offices and education and the city saw a significant influx of German settlers. By 1834 Schneidemühl had barely recovered from the worst outbreak of [[cholera]] of 1831, an epidemic that affected the town's burghers to such an extent that a special Protestant cholera cemetery had to be laid out in the town's suburb Berliner Vorstadt. In the summer of 1834 the city was again struck by a fire that destroyed a large part of the city centre and the city archives. The city was rebuilt shortly afterwards.

In 1851 the city was connected to [[Berlin]] and [[Bydgoszcz]] (Bromberg) by the [[Prussian Eastern Railway]]. An architectural artifact which remains from the railway development period is a [[Okrąglak roundhouse in Piła|historical roundhouse]].

The [[Germanisation of Poles during the Partitions|Germanisation]] policy of the Prussian and Imperial German government replaced its Polish identity with a German one. By the end of the 19th century the city had become one of the most important railway centers of the region and one of the biggest towns in the [[Province of Posen]]. It was turned into a Prussian military [[garrison]] town. Schneidemühl was revisited by a catastrophe, known as the ''Brunnenunglück'', or the 'calamity of the well' that made national headlines. The drilling of an artesian well in August 1892 went horribly wrong and led to unexpected widespread flooding of many of the streets laid out in 1834, causing numerous houses to simply collapse and leaving more than eighty families without shelter. The worst was that this disaster came only a few years on the heels of unexpected flooding caused by the spring thaw of March 1888 that had turned the Küddow into a raging river, when many people were forced to use rowboats to navigate the streets.

====First World War and Imperial German military aviation technology====
[[File:Schneidemuehl Fliegerkaserne.jpg|thumb|Barracks in Piła in 1915]]
On 1 April 1914 Schneidemühl was disentangled from the [[Kreis Kolmar in Posen|Kolmar District]] and became an [[Independent city#Germany|independent city]] (or urban district; Stadtkreis) within the Bromberg Region. In the months before the outbreak of [[World War I]], in April 1914 the [[Albatros Flugzeugwerke]] established the so-called ''Ostdeutsche Albatros-Werke'' (East German Albatros Works, abbreviated "O.A.W.") in Schneidemühl for construction of military aircraft for the [[Luftstreitkräfte|Fliegertruppe]] air service of the [[German Army (German Empire)|German Army]] throughout the war — it later undertook license production of Fokker's famous [[Fokker D.VII]] fighter during the last year of World War I.

During the First World War, the Germans operated a [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War I|prisoner-of-war camp]] in the city, initially taking mainly Russian POWs (including Poles and Latvians conscripted into the Russian Army) but later including prisoners from most [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] nations including Britain and Australia. A telling account of life in the town during that period survives in the form of the diary of [[Jo Mihaly|Piete Kuhr]], then a young girl whose grandmother worked at the Red Cross canteen at the railway station.

===As a provincial capital within the Weimar Republic===
[[File:Piła knsulat.JPG|thumb|Pre-war Polish Consulate, today a museum]]
After World War I, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and the [[Greater Poland Uprising (1918–1919)|Greater Poland Uprising]] broke out, which aim was to reintegrate the region with Poland. Local Poles were persecuted for their pro-Polish stance by the Germans, who also held Polish insurgents in the local prison.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://pw.ipn.gov.pl/pwi/pamiec/miejsca-pamieci/9331,PILA-miasto-powiatowe.html|title=Piła (miasto powiatowe)|website=Instytut Pamięci Narodowej|access-date=25 October 2020|language=pl}}</ref> After the signing of the [[Treaty of Versailles]], and after much protest by the German majority of its population, Schneidemühl was not included in the [[Polish Second Republic]]. After the Greater Poland Uprising, the new Polish-German border ran {{convert|5|km|spell=in|abbr=off}} south of the city.
 
On 21 July 1922 Schneidemühl became the administrative centre of the new [[Grenzmark Posen-Westpreussen|Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia Province]], a body of self-rule encompassing those three disconnected parts of the former Province of Posen and the westernmost parts of the [[Province of West Prussia]], which were not ceded to Poland and of the Posen-West Prussian [[Schneidemühl (region)|Schneidemühl Region]], a body of central government supervision comprising the same provincial area. In 1925, with the sudden influx of the ''Optanten'', inhabitants of areas annexed by Poland who opted not to become Polish citizens and left for the reduced German Reich. Schneidemühl's population swelled by about 10,000 to 37,518, creating considerable publicity in Germany.

In 1930 Schneidemühl replaced Tütz ([[Tuczno]]) as seat of the Catholic jurisdiction, which was promoted from [[Apostolic administration]] to [[Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl|Territorial Prelature of Schneidemühl]] within the [[Eastern German Ecclesiastical Province]]. The city experienced a short period of growth followed by a period of decline in the early 1930s. High unemployment and the ineffectiveness of local administration led to rising support for the [[National Socialist German Workers Party|NSDAP]].

===Nazi rule and Second World War===
With the onset of the Nazi period and the beginning of the [[Gestapo]]'s harassment of political and racial undesirables, the climate for Schneidemühl's shrinking Jewish community (which had reached over 1,000 members during the mid-19th century) changed irreversibly — institutionalized [[antisemitism]] had arrived in Schneidemühl.{{Cn|date=July 2022}}

In March and September 1938, a ''Verwaltungsgliederung,'' or administrative reform, merged the three territorially unconnected parts of the Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia province into the respective neighbouring Prussian provinces of [[Province of Brandenburg|Brandenburg]], [[Province of Silesia|Silesia]] and [[Province of Pomerania (1815–1945)|Pomerania]] — placing the bulk of former Posen-West Prussia with the [[Deutsch Krone (district)|districts of Deutsch Krone]], [[Flatow (district)|Flatow]], ''Netzekreis'', [[Schlochau (district)|Schlochau]] and Schneidemühl into Pomerania. Schneidemühl remained the headquarters of the [[Regierungsbezirk|government region]], reduced by the districts ceded to Brandenburg and Silesia, but enlarged by four previously Brandenburgian and Pomeranian districts and renamed as {{ill|Posen-West_Prussia|de|Regierungsbezirk_Schneidemühl|lt=Frontier March of Posen-West Prussia Region}} (''Regierungsbezirk Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen'') for reasons of tradition, as of 1 October 1938.
[[File:Pila Albatros.JPG|thumb|A monument commemorating Poles imprisoned in the German Nazi camp ''Albatros'' in 1939]]
During the [[Kristallnacht|pogrom of 9/10 November 1938]] the freestanding structure of Schneidemühl's 100-year-old [[synagogue]] became a prime target for the Nazis who set fire to it. In 1939, in the city and the region, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Polish activists,<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|page=80}}</ref> who then were imprisoned in a temporary camp in the city before deportation to [[Nazi concentration camps]], some were even tortured.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Cygański|first=Mirosław|year=1984|title=Hitlerowskie prześladowania przywódców i aktywu Związków Polaków w Niemczech w latach 1939-1945|journal=Przegląd Zachodni|language=pl|issue=4|pages=49, 60}}</ref> In October 1939, a German camp for [[Sinti]] and [[Romani people]] was established.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100000795|title=Lager für Sinti und Roma Schneidemühl|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=25 October 2020|language=de}}</ref> The city's 300-year-old Jewish community was destroyed when on 21 March 1940, on the order of Gauleiter Schwede-Coburg, the last remaining Jews, together with more than 500 Jews of the surrounding area within an {{convert|80|km|0|abbr=on}} radius, were arrested and held prisoner in various locations in the city. A large number of them were subsequently taken to the [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]] camp [[Radinkendorf]] and the [[Głowno|Glowno]] prisoner camp outside of Poznań and held there in detention under inhuman conditions. Over the following two years they were taken to various labour camps, hospices, hospitals in Pomerania, [[Bielefeld]] and Berlin. Those who had not committed suicide or had perished during that period were deported to concentration camps, the last in 1943.<ref>Cullman, Peter Simonstein, 'History of the Jewish Community of Schneidemühl: 1641 to the Holocaust,'  Bergenfield, NJ : Avotaynu, 2006;  DS135.P62P4728 2006.</ref> During World War II a camp for civil prisoners-of-war named "Albatros" was established. Poles [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|expelled]] from [[Gmina Dziemiany]] in [[Gdańsk Pomerania]] were used as forced labour in the local aviation industry.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2017|title=Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939-1945|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=IPN|page=129|isbn=978-83-8098-174-4}}</ref> Also seven forced labour subcamps of the [[Stalag II-B]] [[German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II|prisoner-of-war camp]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://stalag2b.free.fr/leskommandos.htm|title=Les Kommandos|website=Stalag IIB Hammerstein, Czarne en Pologne|access-date=25 October 2020|language=fr}}</ref> and a forced labour camp, which was subordinate to the local prison, were operated in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=2650|title=Außenkommando des Haftanstalt Schneidemühl in Schneidemühl bei der "Maschinenfabrik HA Schneidemühl"|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=25 October 2020|language=de}}</ref> Several British POWs escaped, and then the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish resistance]] facilitated their further escape through the port of [[Gdynia]] by sea to [[Sweden]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Chrzanowski|first=Bogdan|title=Organizacja sieci przerzutów drogą morską z Polski do Szwecji w latach okupacji hitlerowskiej (1939–1945)|journal=Stutthof. Zeszyty Muzeum|language=pl|volume=5|page=29|issn=0137-5377}}</ref> The local [[Home Army]] also maintained contact with Polish POWs held in the [[Oflag II-C]] camp.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chrzanowski|first=Bogdan|year=2022|title=Polskie Państwo Podziemne na Pomorzu w latach 1939–1945|language=pl|location=Gdańsk|publisher=IPN|page=57|isbn=978-83-8229-411-8}}</ref>

The city became part of the [[Pomeranian Wall]] line of fortifications. In 1945 the town was declared a [[German World War II strongholds|fortress]] by [[Adolf Hitler]]. During the [[East Pomeranian offensive]] it was captured by the joint [[First Polish Army (1944-1945)|Polish]] and [[Red Army]] forces after two weeks of heavy fighting on 14 February 1945.<ref>Beevor, A (2002) Berlin: The Downfall 1945 Penguin Books P91</ref> 75% of the city was destroyed and almost 90% of the historic city centre was in ruins.

===Post-war Poland===
{{Unreferenced section|date=April 2019}}
As a result of the border changes agreed at the [[Potsdam Conference]] in 1945, the city became again part of Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the [[Fall of Communism]] in the 1980s. The city's historic Polish name ''Piła'' was restored. The remaining local German population was [[Expulsion of Germans after World War II|expelled]] by Polish and Soviet troops from 1945 to 1948 in accordance with the [[Potsdam Agreement]],{{citation needed|date=October 2020}} while [[Repatriation of Poles (1944–1946)|Polish expelees]] from [[Territories of Poland annexed by the Soviet Union|former eastern Poland annexed by the Soviet Union]] and settlers from areas of central Poland, which were destroyed during the war, were resettled in the city. The historical city centre was only partially restored.
[[File:Piła Główna po modernizacji.jpg|thumb|[[Piła Główna railway station]]]]
In 1972 the [[Roman Catholic Territorial Prelature of Piła|Territorial Prelature of Piła]] was suppressed, its territory being reassigned to establish the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Koszalin-Kołobrzeg|Diocese of Koszalin–Kołobrzeg]] and [[Diocese of Gorzów]].

In August 1980, employees of local factories joined the nationwide anti-communist strikes,<ref>{{cite magazine|last=Zwiernik|first=Przemysław|year=2011|title=Opór społeczny i opozycja w epoce Gierka|magazine=Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej|language=pl|publisher=IPN|issue=5–6 (126–127)|page=131|issn=1641-9561}}</ref> which led to the foundation of the [[Solidarity (Polish trade union)|Solidarity]] organization, which played a central role in the end of communist rule in Poland.

In 1975 Piła became the capital of the newly established [[Piła Voivodeship]] (province), which started a period of fast development of industry in the area as one of the most important cities of the region. It remained a voivodeship capital until the administrative reform of 1999. It is known for its green areas and parks, as well as for its [[Motorcycle speedway|speedway]] club [[Polonia Piła]] who race at the [[Stadion Polonii Piła]].

===Historical population===
{| 
| valign="top" |
{|class=wikitable
! Year
! Inhabitants
|-----
| 1774 || align="right" | 1,322
|-----
| 1816 || align="right" | 1,992
|-----
| 1843 || align="right" | 4,111
|-----
| 1856 || align="right" | 6,060
|-----
| 1867 || align="right" | 7,516
|-----
| 1875 || align="right" | 9,724
|}
| valign="top" |
{|class=wikitable
! Year
! Inhabitants
|-----
| 1880 || align="right" | 11,610
|-----
| 1900 || align="right" | 19,655
|-----
| 1910 || align="right" | 26,126
|-----
| 1925 || align="right" | 37,518
|-----
| 1933 || align="right" | 43,180
|-----
| 1939 || align="right" | 45,791
|}
| valign="top" |
{|class=wikitable
! Year
! Inhabitants
|-----
| 1948 || align="right" | 10,700
|-----
| 1960 || align="right" | 33,800
|-----
| 1970 || align="right" | 43,700
|-----
| 1980 || align="right" | 58,900
|-----
| 1990 || align="right" | 71,100
|-----
| 1995 || align="right" | 75,700
|}
| valign="top" |
{|class=wikitable
! Year
!Inhabitants
|-----
| 2001 || align="right" | 77,000
|-----
| 2005 || align="right" | 74,600
|-----
| 2006 || align="right" | 75,144
|-----
| 2016 || align="right" | 74,102
|}
|}