Brodnica is a town located in the North-East part of the Province of Kujawsko-Pomorskie, spread on both sides of the Drwęca River, in the Brodnica Lake District, surrounded by two landscape parks, namely Brodnica Landscape Park and Górzno-Lidzbark Landscape Park.
Brodnica was granted its borough rights from the State of the Teutonic Order, in 1298, and remained under the Teutonic rule until the Second Peace of Thorn, when it became part of Poland, together with Royal Prussia. The town saw its greatest economic development during the reign of Anna Vasa of Sweden, sister of Sigismund III Vasa, who was made the starosta of Brodnica in 1604. Being a Protestant, she could not stay at the court of her brother, a Catholic. The Princess was a thoroughly educated woman, who established a strong centre of intellectual life in the town famous for its religious toleration. She had her own court, which was open to scholars and writers, and sponsored many artists. Following the death of Anna Vasa, in 1625, the town entered a period of turmoil, marked by wars, religious conflicts, pestilence, and fires, all of which hindered its further development. After the first Partition of Poland, Brodnica was incorporated in the territory under Prussian rule. The 19th century was a period, when the town finally saw some economic recovery, which, for example, manifested in constructing a railway line. On 18th January 1920, Brodnica regained its independence.
Being a border town, during the inter-war period Brodnica was turned into a garrison town, becoming a base for the 67th Infantry Regiment.
During the Second World War, the town was incorporated into the German-occupied territory, and then the Red Army marched right through it putting an end to the German occupation. In 1945, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a degraded Captain and a future laureate of the Nobel Prize in literature, was imprisoned in Brodnica.
Film-wise, Brodnica is popular as a film set for shooting the popular TV series Odwróceni (2007), starring Robert Więckiewicz and Artur Żmijewski, as the leading characters. The series was shot on the streets in the Old Town in Brodnica, episode 8 was film at ul. Jatki, including the scene in which Władysław Różycki, pseudonym “Scalpel,” captain of the so-called Pruszków Mafia, portrayed in the film by Szymon Bobrowski.
Brodnica was also used to shot a number of scenes for the TV action series Defekt (2003-2006), directed by Maciej Dutkiewicz, starring Magdalena Cielecka and Piotr Fronczewski in the leading roles. To shot the scenes, the film crew visited the Market Square, the Chełmińska Gate, and ul. Kamionka, to name a few.