Bełżyce

Coordinates: 51°11′N 22°16′E / 51.183°N 22.267°E / 51.183; 22.267
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Bełżyce
Church of the Conversion of Saint Paul
Church of the Conversion of Saint Paul
Car plates
LUB
Voivodeship roads
Websitehttp://www.belzyce.pl

Bełżyce [bɛu̯ˈʐɨt͡sɛ] ⓘ is a town in eastern Poland, in the Lublin Voivodeship, in Lublin County, and about 20 km (12 mi) to the west of the city of Lublin. Bełżyce belongs to the historical region of Lesser Poland. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 6,290.[3]

History

Middle Ages

15th-century town seal of Bełżyce

Presumably, in the early 13th century, a minor royal castle was in the area of the present city. The building was transferred to local magnates, who provided ability to settle a town according to

Lesser Poland Province of the Polish Crown
.

Protestant domination

The 16th and 17th centuries were a period of Protestant influence in the area. Bełżyce became a Protestant,

Martin Czechowic of Lublin. The next two centuries were a period of permanent religious riot (with Catholic attempt to retake the church in about 1630), the Cossacks assaults while Khmelnytsky’s uprising (massacre of Jews), fires and plagues of cholera and typhoid fever. A new Catholic church was built in 1670 (the old one was given back in 1654[10]
) and 113 years later there are no more Protestants in the town, as their church burned in 1783.

Partition period

In 1795, as a result of the

Imperial Russia. The 19th century was a period of changes, as a castle was transformed into a distillery.[11] In 1860 the city occupied nearly 950 ha with about 150 buildings. After the January Uprising, as part of anti-Polish repressions Bełżyce was stripped of its town rights, as it later turned out for nearly 100 years. Two major fires affected the city – first, in 1866, which destroyed 25 buildings, second, in 1913. The whole town was almost destroyed; residents formed a fire brigade. In 1917, 3666 people populated the town, mostly Jewish, as a result of the Russian discriminatory regulations
.

Interwar Poland

Bełżyce became again part of Poland after the country regained independence in 1918. Administratively it was part of the Lublin Voivodeship.

World War II

A monument commemorating Polish soldiers who fought in World War II and civilians who fought against the German and Soviet occupation

During the invasion of Poland in 1939 the town was captured by the Nazi German Army. The Jews from Bełżyce and nearby towns (including Bychawa and Piotrowice) were resettled into a dozen or so houses on Południowa Street (now Tysiąclecia Street) in December 1940. Between 1940 and 1943 there was a ghetto, consisting of Jews from around Poland and abroad. It was called a transit ghetto. The Jews kept in the crowded area of the ghetto were decimated by typhus and the terrible sanitary conditions.

Sobibor, where they were put into the gas chambers.[12]
Of the 2,100 Jews from the town, only around 35 survived the war. A Torah scroll from 1730 as well as both synagogues were destroyed by the Germans. The Jewish community ceased to exist.

Post-1945

The second half of the 20th century brought little improvements to Bełżyce city. In 1958 town rights were restored. In 1971 “Warmasz” (Warsaw Groceries Machines’ Factory) company opened their branch factory in Bełżyce, later substituted by a creamery equipment factory "Spomasz".[13]

Historic sites

References

  1. ^ "Władze". belzyce.pl (in Polish). Gmina Bełżyce. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  2. ^ "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 2022-08-30. Category K1, division G441, subdivision P1410. Data for territorial unit 0609014.
  3. ^ a b "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 2022-08-30. Category K3, group G7, subgroup P1336. Data for territorial unit 0609014.
  4. ^ "Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved 2022-08-30. Category K3, group G7, subgroup P2425. Data for territorial unit 0609014.
  5. ^ "Przywilej lokacyjny miasta Bełżyce". site.belzyce.pl (in Polish). Gmina Bełżyce. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  6. ^ "Historia Bełżyc w skrócie" (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2016-04-03.
  7. ^ "Historia parafii". parafia.belzyce.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  8. ^ a b "History of the Jewish community". sztetl.org.pl. Virtual Shtetl. Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  9. ISBN 83-7270-421-X
    .
  10. ^ "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom XV cz.2 - wynik wyszukiwania - DIR".
  11. ^ "Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom I - wynik wyszukiwania - DIR".
  12. ^ "Deportations from Lublin area". Retrieved 2022-08-30.
  13. ^ "Spomasz Bełżyce". Retrieved 2022-08-30.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bełżyce.
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