page_title: Bartoszyce
section_title: Modern era
hierarchical_section_title: Bartoszyce / History / Modern era
caption_attribution_description: Polski: Bartoszyce, pl. Konstytucji 3 Maja 22 - brama miejska „Lidzbarska”
context_page_description: Bartoszyce is a town on the Łyna River in northeastern Poland, with 23,482 inhabitants. It is the capital of Bartoszyce County within the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship.
context_section_description: With the secularization of the Teutonic Order's Prussian territories in 1525, the town became part of the Duchy of Prussia, established with the consent of the Polish king Sigismund I the Old, as a vassal state of the Polish Crown. The town converted to Protestantism in the same year during the Protestant Reformation.
  Bartenstein became part of the secular Kingdom of Prussia in 1701 and the Prussian Province of East Prussia in 1773. During the Napoleonic Wars, Prussia and the Russian Empire signed a treaty of alliance in the town on 26 April 1807, the Treaty of Bartenstein. Administrative reform following the Napoleonic Wars placed Bartenstein within East Prussia's Landkreis Friedland in 1818.
  The Lyck-Bartenstein (Ełk–Bartoscyze) train line ran through the town in 1868, leading to the establishment of industries, including an iron foundry, a machine factory, and a train-car factory. It was also noted for its oak trade. A garrison town for the Prussian Army, Bartenstein was the seat of the district court. Because it had grown to become the largest town in Landkreis Friedland during the 19th century, the town was made the district capital in 1902. Landkreis Friedland was renamed Landkreis Bartenstein in 1927. The foundations of the old castle were used in the construction of the administrative seat; this building was destroyed in 1945.
  In January 1945 during World War II, the town was 50% destroyed in fighting between German forces and the Soviet Red Army. As a result of border changes promulgated at the Potsdam Conference (July-August 1945), the town and the area was assigned to Poland. Remaining German residents who had survived were either evacuated or later expelled, and the town was repopulated with Poles.
  The town, renamed Bartoszyce, was in Olsztyn Voivodeship from 1975–1998. It became part of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship in 1999.
caption: Lidzbarska Gate in the town center
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