Chorzów : Poland
Chorzw (pronunciation: [‘xo?uf]) is a city in southern Poland with 117,430 inhabitants (2002) and town area of 33,5 km², situated on the Rawa river (confluence of Brynica river) on the Silesian Highland (Wy?yna ?l?ska) in the centre of the Upper Silesian Industrial Basin (Grno?l?ski Okr?g Przemys?owy) and Upper Silesian Metropolitan Area, north-west of Katowice, and was also known previously as Knigshtte in German prior to 1945. The modern city of Chorzw was formed in 1934-1939 by the merger of separate industrial communities of Chorzw, Krlewska Huta, Nowe Hajduki and Hajduki Wielkie into one municipality. The name of the oldest settlement Chorzw was given to the whole city.
Chorzw is a separate city county since 1898, with the exception of 1975-1998 when the counties were abolished in Poland. Since 1999 Chorzw is part of Silesian Voivodship, previously of Katowice Voivodship.
City name
Chorzw: The early documents show the name as Charzew 1257, Charzow 1292, Charzuff1533. This means that the early name was Charzew/Charzw with a, and later in regional dialects it was modified to the modern pronunciation with o: Chorzw, probably because of similarity to the word like chory=ill. The early name comes from the personal name Charz, short of Zacharz, Zachariasz=Zacharias=Zachary and means Zachary’s place. As this is the oldest part of the city today the neighbourhood is called Chorzw III or Chorzw Stary = the Old Chorzw.
