Winona is a city in and the county seat of Winona County, in the disclose of Minnesota. Located in bluff country on the Mississippi River, its most noticeable physical landmark is Sugar Loaf. The city is named after legendary figure Winona, who some sources claimed was the first-born daughter of Chief Wapasha of the Dakota people. The population was 25,948 at the 2020 census.

The city of Winona began upon the site of a Native American village named Keoxa. The seat of the Wapasha dynasty, Keoxa was home to a Mdewakanton band of the eastern Sioux.

European immigrants established the Place in 1851 and laid out the town into lots in 1852 and 1853. The original settlers were immigrants from New England. The population increased from 815 in December, 1855, to 3,000 in December, 1856. In 1856 German immigrants arrived as well. The Germans and the Yankees worked together planting trees and building businesses based upon lumber, wheat, steamboating and railroads. Between 1859 and 1900, some 5,000 Poles and next door to related Kashubians emigrated to Winona, making going on one quarter of the population. Since 80% of them were Kashubians, Winona became known as the “Kashubian Capital of America”. As a upshot of the influx of Polish Catholic immigrants, the Church of St. Stanislaus (now Basilica of St. Stanislaus Kostka) was built. For a time, Winona had more millionaires than any additional city of its size in the United States.

The railroad and steamboat transportation industries helped Winona be credited with into a small city that diversified into wheat milling, and lumber production. In 1856, more than 1,300 steamboats stopped at Winona. The Winona and St. Peter Railroad first segment of 11 miles (18 km) from Winona to Stockton, Minnesota was completed by the decline of 1862. Winona subsequently had the second dynamic railroad in Minnesota, after the St. Paul and Pacific Line from Saint Paul to St. Anthony Falls. In December 1870, the Mississippi River was bridged at Winona by the Winona Rail Bridge. In 1892, a wagon toll-bridge beyond the Mississippi, a steel high-bridge, was completed and remained in encourage until the creation of the Main Channel Bridge in 1942.