city, Wielkopolskie województwo (province), west-central Poland. A rail junction and industrial town, it produces machine tools and railroad cars, lumber, ceramics, and textiles. The city, which lies in the south of the Great Polish Plain, was first chronicled in the 13th century but received municipal rights only in the 18th. It passed to Prussia in 1793 and was returned to Poland in 1918. Pop. (2002) 73,568.