Editing Piła (section)

====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.