Bielsko-Biała

Bielsko-Biała
Bielsko-Biała
	Montage of Bielsko-Biała
; Flag	; Coat of arms
	Bielsko-Biała
	Coordinates: 49°49′21″N 19°2′40″E / 49.8225°N 19.04444°E
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Silesian
County	city county
Town rights	1312 Bielsko; 1723 Biała
	Government
• Mayor	Jacek Krywult
	Area
• City	124.51 km2 (48.1 sq mi)
Highest elevation	1,117 m (3,665 ft)
Lowest elevation	262 m (860 ft)
	Population (2009)
• City	175,513
• Density	1,409.6/km2 (3,650.9/sq mi)
• Urban	584,000
• Metro	5,294,000
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	43-300 to 43-382
Area code(s)	+48 033
Car plates	SB
Website	http://www.um.bielsko.pl

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Bielsko-Biała [ˈbjɛlskɔ ˈbjawa] ( listen) (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, Silesian Bielsko and Lesser Poland's Biała, amalgamated in 1951.

[edit] History

Main article: History of Bielsko-Biała

Both town names refer to the Biała River, stemming from biel or biała, which means "white" in Polish.

[edit] Bielsko

Between 1933 and 1938 an archaeological team discovered remains of a fortified settlement in what is now the 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 centre 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 colonize the Silesian Beskids. As the dukes then also ruled over the Lesser Polish lands east of the Biała River, settlements arose on both banks like Bielitz (now Stare Bielsko), Nickelsdorf (Mikuszowice Śląskie), Kamitz (Kamienica), Batzdorf (Komorowice Śląskie) and Kurzwald in the west as well as Kunzendorf (Lipnik), Alzen (Hałcnów) and Wilmesau in the east. Nearby settlements in the mountains were Lobnitz (Wapienica) 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 Duke Mieszko I of Cieszyn granted a town charter. The Biała again became a border river, when in 1315 the eastern Duchy of Oświęcim split off from Cieszyn as a separate under Mieszko's son Władysław. After the Dukes of Cieszyn had become vassals of the Bohemian kings in 1327 and the Duchy of Oświęcim was sold to the Polish Crown in 1457, the Biała River for centuries marked the border between the Bohemian crown land of Silesia within the Holy Roman Empire and the Lesser Polish region of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

With Bohemia and the Upper Silesian Duchy of Cieszyn, Bielsko in 1526 was inherited by the Austrian House of Habsburg and incorporated into the Habsburg Monarchy. From 1560 Bielsko was held by Frederick Casimir of Cieszyn, son of Duke Wenceslaus III Adam, who due to the enormous debts his son left upon his death in 1571, had to sell it to the Promnitz noble family at Pless. With the consent of Emperor Maximilian II, the Promnitz dynasty and their Schaffgotsch successors ruled the Duchy of Bielsko as a Bohemian state country; acquired by the Austrian chancellor Count Friedrich Wilhelm von Haugwitz in 1752, the ducal status was finally confirmed by Empress Maria Theresa in 1754.

After the Prussian king Frederick the Great had invaded Silesia, Bielsko remained with the Habsburg Monarchy as part of Austrian Silesia according to the 1742 Treaty of Breslau.

[edit] Biała

The opposite bank of the Biała River, again Polish since 1475, had been sparsely settled since the mid 16th century. A locality was first mentioned in a 1564 deed, it received the name Biała in 1584. Its population increased during the Counter-Reformation in the Habsburg lands, when many Protestant artisans from Bielsko moved across the river. Though already named a town in the 17th century, Biała officially was granted city rights by the Polish king Augustus II the Strong in 1723.

In the course of the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Biała was annexed by the Austrian Habsburg Monarchy and incorporated into the crownland of Galicia. The Protestant citizens received the right to establish parishes according to the 1781 Patent of Toleration by Emperor Joseph II.

With the dissolution of Austria–Hungary in 1918 according to the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, both cities became part of the reconstituted Polish state, even though the majority of the citizens were ethnic German. During World War II the city was annexed by Nazi Germany and its Jewish population was sent to nearby Auschwitz concentration camp. After the conquest 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.

[edit] Geography

The city is situated on the border of historic Upper Silesia and Lesser Poland at the eastern rim of the smaller Cieszyn Silesia region, about 60 km (37 mi) south of Katowice. Administrated within 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 and the main city of the Bielsko Industrial Region (Polish: Bielski Okręg Przemysłowy), part of the Upper Silesian metropolitan area.

[edit] Climate

Climate data for Bielsko-Biała
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °C (°F)	12 (54)	17 (63)	19 (66)	25 (77)	28 (82)	29 (84)	31 (88)	31 (88)	27 (81)	23 (73)	16 (61)	16 (61)	31 (88)
Average high °C (°F)	0 (32)	1 (34)	6 (43)	11 (52)	16 (61)	18 (64)	20 (68)	20 (68)	16 (61)	12 (54)	5 (41)	2 (36)	11 (52)
Daily mean °C (°F)	−1 (30)	−1 (30)	3 (37)	7 (45)	12 (54)	15 (59)	17 (63)	17 (63)	13 (55)	9 (48)	3 (37)	2 (36)	8 (46)
Average low °C (°F)	−3 (27)	−3 (27)	1 (34)	4 (39)	8 (46)	11 (52)	13 (55)	13 (55)	10 (50)	6 (43)	1 (34)	−1 (30)	5 (41)
Record low °C (°F)	−23 (−9)	−21 (−6)	−16 (3)	−5 (23)	−1 (30)	2 (36)	5 (41)	5 (41)	1 (34)	−5 (23)	−15 (5)	−18 (0)	−23 (−9)
Precipitation mm (inches)	50 (1.97)	49 (1.93)	54 (2.13)	76 (2.99)	114 (4.49)	145 (5.71)	141 (5.55)	125 (4.92)	84 (3.31)	60 (2.36)	63 (2.48)	59 (2.32)	1,020 (40.16)
Avg. precipitation days	16	15	15	13	13	14	11	12	11	11	15	17	163
Source: Weatherbase ^[1]

[edit] Economy and Industry

Nowadays Bielsko-Biała is one of the best-developed parts of Poland. It was ranked 2nd best city for business in that country by Forbes. About 5% of people are unemployed (compared 9,6% for Poland). Bielsko-Biała is famous for its textile, machine-building, and especially automotive industry. In Bielsko-Biała there are four areas that belong to Katowice Special Economic Zone. Another reason for the low unemployment rate is that large numbers of young families have become economic migrants and have moved to the UK for employment. There are large communities originally from Bielsko-Biała now living in towns such as Slough and Southampton.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Transportation

Interior of the main train station (of several) in Bielsko-Biała, 28 April 2006

[edit] Road transport

Although Bielsko-Biała is not served by an Autostrada (motorway), it is served by the Expressway S1, which was completed in late 2006, and runs from Bielsko-Biała to Cieszyn at the Czech border. Another expressway, the S69, is under construction around Bielsko-Biała and will run to Žilina in Slovakia. It is planned to extend S1 north along the existing dual carriageway DK1 from Bielsko-Biała to Tychy and Katowice, thus connecting Bielsko-Biała with the national motorway network of Poland. National Road DK52 connects Bielsko-Biała with Kraków in the east. The most important interchange in the area is the cloverleaf north of Bielsko-Biała where S1, DK1 and DK52 meet.

[edit] Sights

Town Hall

Weaver's House Museum

Bielsko-Biała - the main post office seen from the castle

Bielsko-Biała is a beautiful city. It has a vibrant modernistic presence being a student-city with its associated nightlife, as well as having numerous historical sights.

The Bielsko-Biała Museum, housed in the castle of the Dukes of Cieszyn from 15th century, later Castle of the Sułkowski princes
Town Hall built in 1897
Hotel Prezydent
Train Station (Bielsko-Biała Główna) from 1888
Jewish Cemetery founded in 1849
Theater built in 1890
St. Nicholas' Cathedral from 1447 and rebuilt in 1909 - 1910
House of Frogs, an Art Nouveau mansion
The Bielsko Biała Gallery of Art, galeria BWA
Weaver's House Museum, Dom Tkacza, reconstructed workshop of a draper