page_title: History of Poznań
section_title: In the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815)
hierarchical_section_title: History of Poznań / In the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–1815)
caption_attribution_description: English: Jan Henryk Dabrowski entering Poznań Ελληνικά: Ο Γιαν Χένρικ Νταμπρόφσκι εισέρχεται στο Πόζναν
context_page_description: Poznań, today Poland's fifth largest city, is also one of the country's oldest cities, and was an important political and religious center in the early Polish state of the 10th century. Poznań Cathedral is the oldest church in the country, containing the tombs of the first Polish rulers, Duke Mieszko I and King Bolesław I Chrobry.
  Although the centre of national political power moved to Kraków in the 11th century, and later to Warsaw, Poznań remained an important regional center, being the chief city of the Greater Poland region. It came under Prussian rule for most of the period from 1793 to 1918, during which it expanded significantly, and was also heavily fortified. The city resumed its role as a Polish voivodeship capital in the Second Polish Republic, and later, following the 1939–1945 Nazi occupation, in the communist Polish People's Republic. Since 1999 Poznań has been the capital of Greater Poland Voivodeship.
context_section_description: Following France's successes against Prussia in the Napoleonic Wars, Napoleon sent Polish generals Jan Henryk Dąbrowski and Józef Wybicki to raise a Polish army to take control of South Prussia, in what was called the Greater Poland Uprising of 1806. On 1–2 November Prussian forces and many officials withdrew from Poznań, leaving Dąbrowski and Wybicki to enter the city on 3 November 1806. The city became a base for continued military action, and Napoleon himself stayed there (at the former Jesuit College) between 27 November and 12 December. The following year Poznań became part of the semi-independent Duchy of Warsaw, and served as the capital of an administrative area called Poznań Department.
  In 1812 Napoleon's armies again passed through Poznań, this time in retreat following defeat in Russia, and Napoleon stayed in the city (in secret) on 12 December. The last French troops left on 12 February 1813, and Russian troops entered the city the same day, beginning an occupation which lasted until 1815. In that year, as agreed at the Congress of Vienna, Poznań and its region again came under Prussian control.
caption: Dąbrowski's Entry into Poznań by Jan Gładysz
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