Founding
capital of Lublin Voivodeship in eastern Poland
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Lublin is the eighth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the centre of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of the Vistula River, located 153 km (95 mi) southeast of Warsaw.
One of the events that greatly contributed to the city's development was the Polish–Lithuanian Union of Krewo in 1385. Lublin thrived as a centre of trade and commerce due to its strategic location on the route between Vilnius and Kraków; the inhabitants had the privilege of free trade in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The Lublin Parliament session of 1569 led to the creation of a real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, thus creating the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Lublin witnessed the early stages of the Reformation in the 16th century. A Calvinist congregation was founded and groups of radical Polish Brethren (called Arians by their detractors) appeared in the city, making it an important global centre of Unitarianism.
Until the partitions at the end of the 18th century, Lublin was an important royal city of the Kingdom of Poland. Its delegates, alike nobles, had the right to participate in the royal election. In 1578, Lublin was chosen as the seat of the Crown Tribunal, the highest appeal court in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and for centuries, the city has been flourishing as a centre of culture and higher learning.
In 2011, the analytical Financial Times Group found Lublin to be one of the best cities for business in Poland. The Foreign Direct Investment ranking placed Lublin second among larger Polish cities in the cost-effectiveness category. Lublin is noted for its green spaces and a high standard of living; the city has been selected as the 2023 European Youth Capital and 2029 European Capital of Culture. Its historical Old Town is one of Poland's national monuments (Pomnik historii) tracked by the National Heritage Board of Poland.
Archaeological finds indicate a long presence of cultures in the area. A complex of settlements started to develop on the future site of Lublin and in its environs in the sixth to seventh centuries. Remains of settlements dating back to the sixth century were discovered in the centre of today's Lublin on Czwartek ("Thursday") Hill.
The early Middle Ages were marked by an intensified settlement of people, particularly in the areas along river valleys. The settlements were centred around the stronghold on Old Town Hill, which was likely one of the main centres of the Lendians, a Lechitic tribe. When the tribal stronghold was destroyed in the 10th century, the centre shifted to the northeast, to a new stronghold above Czechówka valley and, after the mid-12th century, to Castle Hill.
At least two churches are presumed to have existed in Lublin in the early medieval period. One of them was most probably erected on Czwartek Hill during the rule of Casimir the Restorer in the 11th century. The castle became the seat of a castellan, first mentioned in historical sources from 1224, but was quite possibly present from the start of the 12th or even 10th century. The oldest historical document mentioning Lublin dates from 1198, so the name must have come into general use some time earlier.
The location of Lublin at the eastern borders of the Polish lands gave it military significance. During the first half of the 13th century, Lublin was a target of attacks by Mongols, Tatars, Ruthenians, and Lithuanians, which resulted in its destruction. It was also ruled by Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia between 1289 and 1302. Lublin was founded as a town by Władysław I the Elbow-high or between 1258 and 1279 during the rule of the prince Bolesław V the Chaste. Casimir III the Great, appreciating the site's strategic importance, built a masonry castle in 1341 and encircled the city with defensive walls. From 1326, if not earlier, the stronghold on Castle Hill included a chapel in honor of the Holy Trinity. A stone church dating to 1335–1370 exists to this day.
In 1392, the city received an important trade privilege from the king Władysław II Jagiełło. With the coming of peace between Poland and Lithuania, it developed into a trade centre, handling a large portion of commerce between the countries. In 1474, the area around Lublin was carved out of Sandomierz Voivodeship and combined to form the Lublin Voivodeship, the third voivodeship of Lesser Poland.
During the 15th and 16th centuries, the town grew rapidly. The largest trade fairs of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were held in Lublin. In the 16th century, the parliaments (Sejm) of the Kingdom of Poland were held in Lublin several times. On 26 June 1569, one of the most important proclaimed the Union of Lublin, which united Poland and Lithuania. Lublin as one of the most influential cities of the state enjoyed voting rights during the royal elections in Poland.
Some of the artists and writers of the 16th century Polish renaissance lived and worked in Lublin, including Sebastian Klonowic and Jan Kochanowski, who died in the city in 1584. In 1578, the Crown Tribunal, the highest court of the Lesser Poland Province, was established in Lublin.
Since the second half of the 16th century, Protestant Reformation movements devolved in Lublin, and a large congregation of Polish Brethren was present in the city. One of Poland's most important Jewish communities was established in Lublin around this time. Jews established a widely respected yeshiva, Jewish hospital, synagogue, cemetery, and education centre (kahal) and built the Grodzka Gate (known as the Jewish Gate) in the historic district. Jews were a vital part of the city's life until the Holocaust, during which they were relocated by Nazi Germany to the infamous Lublin Ghetto and ultimately murdered.
The yeshiva became a centre of learning of Talmud and Kabbalah, leading the city to be called "the Jewish Oxford". In 1567, the rosh yeshiva (headmaster) received the title of rector from the king along with rights and privileges equal to those of the heads of Polish universities.
The city declined due to the disastrous Deluge, when it was invaded by Russo-Cossack forces in 1655, and Sweden in 1656.
After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Lublin was located in the Austrian Empire, then following the Austro-Polish War of 1809 it was part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw, and then in 1815 it became part of the Congress Poland in the Russian Partition of Poland.
At the beginning of the 19th century, new squares, streets, and public buildings were built. In 1877, a railway connection to Warsaw and Kovel and Lublin Station were constructed, spurring industrial development. Lublin's population grew from 28,900 in 1873 to 50,150 in 1897 (including 24,000 Jews).
Russian rule ended in 1915, when the city was occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian armies. After the defeat of the Central Powers in 1918, the Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland—the first government of independent Poland—operated in Lublin for a short time. In the interwar years, the city continued to modernise and its population grew; important industrial enterprises were established, including the first aviation factory in Poland, the Plage i Laśkiewicz works, later nationalised as the LWS factory. The Catholic University of Lublin was founded in 1918.
In 1921, Roman Catholics constituted 58.9% of the city's population, with Jews at 39.5%. In 1931, 63.7% of the inhabitants were Roman Catholic and 34.7% Jewish.
On 20 July 1931 a violent tornado carved a path of destruction through the city, destroying dozens of structures in downtown and killing six people. This tornado is officially rated F4 on the Fujita scale; however, the Polish Weather Service estimated winds at 246 to 324 mph (396 to 521 km/h), potentially ranking it as an F5.
In early September 1939, during the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II, the Polish government evacuated a portion of the Polish gold reserve from Warsaw to Lublin, and then further east to Łuck, before the city was occupied by Germany, and found itself in the newly formed General Government territory. The Polish population became a target of severe Nazi persecutions focusing on intelligentsia and Polish Jews. In November 1939, during the Intelligenzaktion, the Germans carried out mass arrests of hundreds of Poles, including teachers, judges, lawyers, engineers, priests, lecturers of the local theological seminary, and lecturers and students of the Catholic University of Lublin, which the occupiers closed down. Arrested Poles were held in a prison established in the Lublin Castle, and many were afterwards deported to concentration camps.
On 23–25 December 1939, the Germans carried out massacres of 31 Poles in several locations in Lublin. Among the victims were lawyers, professors, school principals, starosts of Lublin and Lubartów counties and other well-known and respected citizens of the region. In January and February 1940, the occupiers arrested 23 Capuchin friars and 43 Jesuit friars. Persecution of Polish intelligentsia was continued with the AB-Aktion. On 24 June 1940, the Germans carried out mass arrests of over 800 Poles in Lublin, who were then imprisoned in the castle, along with dozens of Poles who were arrested at the same time in other towns in the region, including Biała Podlaska, Chełm, Puławy. Many of the prisoners were then deported to the Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz concentration camps, while around 500 Poles were murdered in five large massacres carried out in the present-day district of Rury in 1940. Among the victims of the massacres were both men and women: doctors, engineers, local officials, lawyers, judges, activists, military officers, parliamentarians, Polish resistance members, policemen, teachers and school and university students.
An attempt to "Germanise" the city led to an influx of the ethnic Volksdeutsche, increasing the number of German minority from 10–15% in 1939 to 20–25%. Near Lublin, the so-called "reservation" for the Jews was built based on the idea of racial segregation known as the "Nisko or Lublin Plan".
The Germans established and operated a Baudienst forced labour camp for Poles in Lublin. Many Poles from or associated with Lublin, including 94 lecturers, alumni and students of the Catholic University of Lublin were murdered by the Soviets in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940.
The Jewish population was forced into the newly established Lublin Ghetto. The city served as headquarters for Operation Reinhardt, the main German effort to exterminate all Jews in occupied Poland. The majority of the ghetto inmates, about 26,000 people, were deported to the Bełżec extermination camp between 17 March and 11 April 1942. The remainder were moved to facilities around the Majdanek concentration camp established at the outskirts of the city. Almost all of Lublin's Jews were murdered during the Holocaust in Poland. The secret Polish Council to Aid Jews "Żegota", established by the Polish resistance movement operated in the city. There are also known cases of local Polish men and women, who were captured and sent to either forced labour or concentration camps by the Germans for sheltering and aiding Jews. Poles who saved Jews in other places in the region were also temporarily imprisoned in the local castle, before being sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
After the war, some survivors emerged from hiding with the Christian rescuers or returned from the Soviet Union, and re-established a small Jewish community in the city, but their numbers were insignificant. Most survivors left Poland for Israel, the United States and other countries.
In the first years of the occupation, many expelled Poles from Gdańsk and German-annexed Pomerania were deported to Lublin, and later on, in 1943, around 9,000 expelled Poles from the nearby Zamojszczyzna region were brought to Lublin and imprisoned in the Majdanek concentration camp and in a transit camp at Krochmalna Street; many were afterwards deported to forced labour in Germany. In August 1943, thanks to efforts of the Polish Rada Główna Opiekuńcza charity organisation, around 2,200 people were released from those two camps. Many of the released people, including hundreds of kidnapped Polish children, were extremely exhausted or sick, and were taken to local hospitals, which quickly became overcrowded. Many exhausted children died soon. Lublin pharmacists and residents organized help for the children, and after leaving the hospital, the people were taken in by the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, which resulted in an epidemic typhus outbreak, which caused many deaths among the population.
On 24 July 1944, the city was taken by the Soviet Army and became the temporary headquarters of the Soviet-controlled communist Polish Committee of National Liberation established by Joseph Stalin, which was to serve as the basis for a puppet government. The Soviets carried out arrests of Polish resistance members, including the regional delegate of the Polish government-in-exile, Władysław Cholewa, and the commander of the regional branch of the Home Army, Colonel Kazimierz Tumidajski, who was eventually killed in Russian captivity in 1947. The capital of new Poland was moved to Warsaw in January 1945 after the Soviet westward offensive.
In the postwar years, Lublin continued to grow, tripling its population and greatly expanding its area. A considerable scientific and research base was established around the newly founded Maria Curie-Skłodowska University. A large automotive factory, Fabryka Samochodów Ciężarowych (FSC), was built in the city. In 2017, the city was awarded the Europe Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe for having made exceptional efforts to spread the ideal of European unity.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Lublin”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.