Poland - Będzin

Views of interesting places in Będzin, Poland.

Sent by Ewa from Będzin, Poland.

This is from Wikipedia : Będzin [ˈbɛnd​͡ʑin] (also Bendzin, Yiddish: Bendin בענדין, German: Bendzin, Bendsburg) is a city in Zagłębie Dąbrowskie in southern Poland. Located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Czarna Przemsza river (tributary of the Vistula), the city borders the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union - a metro area with a population of about 2 million.

It has been situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1999. Before 1999, it was located in Katowice Voivodeship. Będzin is one of the cities of the 2.7 million person conurbation - Katowice urban area and within a greater Silesian metropolitan area populated by about 5,294,000 people. The population of the city is 58,639 (2008).

According to archeological finds, the settlement has existed since the early Middle Ages. The earliest historical mention of Będzin comes from 1301, when it is listed as a village. It was granted Magdeburg rights and became a city in 1358.

Until World War II, Będzin had a vibrant Jewish community. According to the Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 21,200, Jews constituted 10,800 (around 51% percent). According to the 1921 census the town had a Jewish community consisting of 17,298 people, or 62.1 percent of its total population. In September 1939, the German Army (Wehrmacht) overran this area, followed by the SS death squads (Einsatzgruppen), who burned the Będzin synagogue and murdered many of the Jewish inhabitants. A Będzin Ghetto was created in 1942. Eventually, in the summer of 1943, most of the Jews in Będzin were deported to the nearby German concentration camp at Auschwitz. Since Będzin was one of the last Polish communities to be liquidated, there are a relatively large number of survivors from there, and an extensive collection of their personal photographs were recovered, offering photographic insight into the pre-war life there.

Poland - Górnośląski Park Etnograficzny

Górnośląski Park Etnograficzny or Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park.

Sent by Agnieszka, a postcrosser from Poland.

This is from Wikipedia : The Upper Silesian Ethnographic Park or Górnośląski Park Etnograficzny is an open-air museum in Chorzów, Poland. It is referred to as a skansen, stemming from the first open air museum of its kind, the Skansen in Stockholm, Sweden. The area of the park is 25 hectare.

The museum presents a range of agricultural buildings from all over Silesia. Amongst those are cottages from the Beskids, farmsteads from the Pszczyna region, a wooden church from Nieboczowy dating from the 18th century and a large number of buildings and artifacts from Istebna in Cieszyn Silesia.

Poland - Ustroń

Ustroń, Poland.

Sent by Agnieszka, a postcrosser from Poland.

This is from Wikipedia : Ustroń [ˈustrɔɲ](German: Ustron) is a health resort town in Cieszyn Silesia, southern Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been in Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship (1975–1998). It lies in the Silesian Beskids mountain range.

According to the Austrian census of 1910 the town had 4,275 inhabitants, 4,265 of whom had permanent residence there. The census asked people for their native language; 3,917 (91.8%) were Polish-speaking and 333 (7.8%) were German-speaking. Jews were not allowed to declare Yiddish; most of them thus declared the German language as their native. The most populous religious groups were Protestants with 2,439 (57%) followed by Roman Catholics with 1,728 (40.4%) and the Jews with 107 (2.5%).

The town has a futuristic outlook because of a cluster of pyramid-shaped hotels. It is also the home of the Jan Jarocki Museum. It was founded in April 1986 as Museum of Metallurgy. Burned by Tatars 1241. It is housed in an old building of the former Klemens Steel Works, which was in use between 1772 and 1897. The museum collects technical tools, as well as historical and ethnographic artifacts.

The Równica and Czantoria mountains are nearby and hikable from the town center.

Poland - Rybnik

Rybnik.

Sent by Marcelina, a postcrosser from Poland.

This is from Wikipedia : Rybnik [ˈrɨbnik] is a city in southern Poland, in the Silesian Voivodeship. Rybnik is located close to the border with the Czech Republic and just outside the southern border of the largest urban area in Poland, the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union. Rybnik is about 290 km south of Warsaw and about 100 km west of Kraków.

The city of Rybnik has a population of about 141,387 (June 2009), and its metropolitan area is 0.7 million. The Rybnik area is an important economic region of Poland, and visible center of culture, with a famous Szafrankowie Brothers State School of Music and Philharmonic Orchestra.

The city itself has 141,387 inhabitants (including 0.03% foreigners), density: 955.3 per km². (as of 30 June 2009). Rybnik ranks as Poland's 25th largest city. Rybnik's unemployment is significantly lower (4.6%) than the national average of 8.8% (as of October 2008). Ethnically, 88% of Rybnik's population declare themselves as Poles, 9% as Silesians and 3% as "others".

The city of Rybnik is the centre of a metropolitan area, the Rybnik Coal Region (Rybnicki Okręg Węglowy) with a population of 0.7 million. The distance to Katowice is about 50 km, and to Ostrava is about 30 km.

Poland - Bielsko-Biała

Bielsko-Biała

Sent by Magda, a postcrosser from Bielsko-Biała in Poland.

This is from Wikipedia : Bielsko-Biała [ˈbjɛlskɔ ˈbjawa] (German: Bielitz-Biala; Czech: Bílsko-Bělá) is a city in southern Poland with 175,513 inhabitants (June 2009).

Bielsko-Biała is composed of two former cities on opposite banks of the Biała River, Bielsko and Biała, amalgamated in 1951. Situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (since 1999), the city was previously capital of Bielsko-Biała Voivodeship (1975–1998). Bielsko-Biała is one of the most important cities of the Beskidy Euroregion. Main city of Bielsko Industrial Region (Polish: Bielski Okręg Przemysłowy).

Both parts of the name stem from "biel" or "biała", which means "white" in Polish.

Between 1933 and 1938 an archaeological team discovered remains of a fortified settlement in what is now Stare Bielsko (Old Bielsko) district of the city. The settlement was dated to the 12th - 14th centuries. Its dwellers manufactured iron from ore and specialized in smithery.

The current center of the town was probably developed as early as the first half of the 13th century. At that time a castle (which still survives today) was built on a hill.

In the second half of the 13th century, the Piast Dukes of Opole invited German settlers to land between Silesia and Lesser Poland in order to colonize the Silesian Beskids. Nearby settlements west of the Biała River were Nikelsdorf, Kamitz, Alt-Bielitz (now Stare Bielsko), Batzdorf and Kurzwald. Nearby settlements east of the river Bialka were Kunzendorf, Alzen and Wilmesau. Nearby settlements in the mountains were Lobnitz and Bistrai.

After the partition of the Duchy of Oppeln in 1281, Bielsko passed to the Dukes of Cieszyn (Teschen). The town was first documented in 1312 when a Duke of Cieszyn granted a town charter. From 1457 the Biała River was the border between Silesia (within the Holy Roman Empire) and Lesser Poland. The town of Biała was established on the opposite bank of the Biała River in 1723.

During the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Biała was annexed by Austria and included in the crownland of Galicia. In 1918 both cities became part of a reconstituted Polish state, even though the majority of the population was ethnic German. During World War II the city was annexed by Nazi Germany and its Jewish population was sent to Auschwitz concentration camp. After the liberation of the city by the Red Army in 1945, the ethnic German population was expelled westward.

The city of Bielsko-Biała was created on 1 January 1951 when the adjacent cities of Bielsko and Biała were unified.

Poland - Gliwice (3)

Sent by Dr. Józef from Gliwice Poland.

This is from Wikipedia : Gliwice [gliˈvit​͡sɛ] (German: Gleiwitz) is a city in Upper Silesia in southern Poland, near Katowice. Gliwice is the west district of the Upper Silesian Metropolitan Union – a metropolis with a population of 2 million. The city is located in the Silesian Highlands, on the Kłodnica river (a tributary of the Oder).

Situated in the Silesian Voivodeship since its formation in 1999, Gliwice was previously in Katowice Voivodeship. Gliwice is one of the cities of a 2.7 million conurbation known as the Katowice urban area and is within the larger Silesian metropolitan area, which has a population of about 5,294,000 people. The population of the city is 196,361 (June 2009).

Poland - Gliwice (2)

Sent by Dr. Józef from Gliwice Poland.

Poland - Gliwice (1)

Sent by Dr. Józef from Gliwice Poland.