Kalisz, city in central Poland, capital of Kalisz Province. Kalisz is located on the Prosna River about 105 km (about 65 mi) southeast of Poznan. Food products, mostly concentrates, are processed here, and manufacturing industries produce fodder, textiles, clothing, diesel engines, automobile parts, building materials, glassware, and pianos. Kalisz has many historic monuments, including the 13th-century Saint Nicholas Church and the early 17th-century Bernardine Church. The Museum of the Kalisz Region, founded in 1906, has exhibits of archaeology and ethnography.
Kalisz is the oldest known settlement in Poland. It was first chronicled in the 2nd century by astronomer and mathematician Ptolemy. In his work Geography, which describes the world as understood during his time, Ptolemy identified Kalisz as the Slavic settlement of Kalisia, an important trading post on a trade route between the Roman Empire and the Baltic Sea. Chartered in the 13th century, the city was a political and commercial center of medieval Poland. Prussia annexed Kalisz in 1793. In 1813 a treaty establishing a coalition between Prussia and Russia against French emperor Napoleon I was signed in Kalisz. Two years later the city came under the control of the Russian Empire. Kalisz was returned to Poland at the end of World War I (1914-1918). The city was occupied by German forces during World War II (1939-1945). Population (1997 estimate) 106,700.
