Bełżyce [bɛu̯ˈʐɨt͡sɛ] (
listen) is a town in eastern Poland, in the Lublin Voivodeship, in Lublin County, and about 20 km to the west of the city of Lublin.
[edit] History
Granted city rights in 1417, these rights were lost in 1869 in the aftermath of the failed January Uprising against the Russian Tsar. During the Protestant Reformation, through the 16th and 17th centuries, Bełżyce was a center for the Polish brethren, and a destination for reformist conventions and synodal gatherings. According to the 1921 census the town had a Jewish community consisting of 1882 people, or 50.9 percent of its total population.[1] During the German occupation in Second World War 3500 residents of the city were killed or otherwise disappeared, a full 60 % of the population. Many, mostly Jewish, victims of the Majdanek Nazi concentration and extermination camp are buried at the Bełżyce cemetery.
Bełżyce was granted city status again in 1958, when the population had sufficiently recovered in numbers. Today, the town is a minor agricultural center, and home to a factory that produces creamery equipment. It is also the intersection of several highways.
[edit] Historic Sites
- A castle that was built in 1417, captured by the Cossack forces of Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648, and, since Second World War, has been used as a dairy farm.
- A late Renaissance church.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 51°11′N 22°17′E / 51.183°N 22.283°E / 51.183; 22.283
Poland
listen) is a town in eastern Poland, in the Lublin Voivodeship, in Lublin County, and about 20 km to the west of the city of Lublin.
