Lublin Poland description, location, history. Poland map.

Lublin Poland description, location, history. Poland map.

Lublin is the capital of Lublin Voivodeship (Province), situated in Lubelska Valley, on the Bystrzyca River (left tributary of the Wieprz River).

According to the archeologists, Lublin is an old settlement established around the 6th-7th century on Czwartek hill. Favourable geographical conditions and the town's location on the intersection of important trade routes, enabled the town to play an important role in the connections between the East and the West from early Medieval Times.

The first reference to Lublin was made in the document from 1198, and the city was chartered and located on the Magdeburg Law in 1317, during the reing of Ladislaus the Short.

The period between the 14th and 16th century was the most prosperous in the history of the city. During that time, Lublin became one of the most important centres of the royal power. King Ladislaus Jagiello made the town the place of the Polish and Lithuanian congresses, and Casimir Jagiellonian made Lublin the capital of the voivodeship.

The city flourished in the 15th and 16th century, mainly due to the presence of the trade route from the Black Sea to the Western Europe; beautiful Old Town is the remnant of those times.

In 1665, the city was plundered by the Russian-Cossack army - the Jewish district suffered the most. In 1666, the Swedes destroyed the city completely and decimated the population. During the next years, the city suffered further decline mainly due to the North War which broke out at beginnng of the 18th century.

It was not until the 19th century that the city revived. In the 1820s, it witnessed reconstruction works, and in the second half of the 19th century the first workshops appeared. Warszawa - Kowel railaway connection was a big step in the development of Lublin.

After Poland regained independence in 1918, new fabrics and public utility buildings started to appear in the city; also in 1918 Lublin Catholic University was established.

From September 1939 to July 1944, the city was occupied by the Germans. During the War World II, Majdanek concentration camp and the Jewish ghetto were built in Lublin. During the Holocaust 40 thousand Jews from Lublin were killed (before 1939 they constituted 1/3 of the city population). The so called Jewish Town, the building complex around the castle, 3/4 of the Old Town buildings and the whole Wieniawa district, inhabited mainly by the Jews were destroyed completely.

From July 23, 1944 for 164 days Lublin was the capital of the communist Poland.

After the war, Lublin gradually became a strong municipal centre with a large economic and academic potential. On July 1980, the first working-class movement took place in Lublin and Świdnik. After similar working-class protests in Gdańsk and Szczecin on August 1980, the Independent Self-Governing Trade Union (NSZZ "Solidarność") was founded and the political system was changed in the near future.