Bledzew

Bledzew is a village in Miedzyrzecz County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Bledzew. It lies on the western rim of the Greater Poland historic region, left of the Obra river, approximately north-west of Miedzyrzecz, south-east of Gorzów Wielkopolski, and north of Zielona Góra. The village has a population of 1,300. The settlement was established in the 1230s by the Piast duke Wladyslaw Odonic of Greater Poland. After the adjacent Lubusz Land had passed to the Margraviate of Brandenburg in 1248, the Ascanian margrave Waldemar occupied the Bledzew area and granted it to the Cistercian monks at Zemsko; it nevertheless was reconquered by the Polish king Wladyslaw I the Elbow-high in 1326 and incorporated into the Poznan Voivodeship of the Polish Crown. Bledzew received city rights according to Magdeburg law by King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1458, confirmed by his successor John I Albert in 1493.