Końskowola
Końskowola is a village in Southeastern Poland, located between Puławy and Lublin, near Kurów, on the Kurówka River. It is capital of a separate commune (gmina) within Puławy County and the Lublin Voivodeship. Population: 2188 inhabitants (as of 2004).
Name
Końskowola literally translates as Horse's Will, but its name came from Wola - a type of village, and its owner's name - Jan z Konina (Jan Koniński, John of Konin). The name Konińskawola is noted in 1442.
History
The village was founded probably in the XIV century, under the name Witowska Wola. Its name was later changed to Konińskawola, its present form, in the XIX century.
On June 8, 1532, the town was incorporated. As a private town, Końskowola served as a centre of the foodstuffs trade for the surrounding area. Several textile production factories were also located there. Many people immigrated there from other parts of Poland and elsewhere as well; among others were many immigrants from Saxony.
Since then, it has shared the history of the entire region. After the third partition of Poland, in 1795, it was annexed by Austria. In 1809 it became part of the Duchy of Warsaw, only to become part of the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. After the January Uprising, in 1870 the town finally lost the city charter, never to regain it. During the Russian Revolution of 1905, many demonstrations and strikes of solidarity were organized there. Since 1918, the town is again part of Poland.
With the onset of the Second World War, on September 15, 1939, Końskowola was taken by German troops and occupied. During the course of WWII, the Germans set up a POW camp and camps for slave labour in the town. The POW camp was soon liquidated, but a labour camp continued in operation through 1943. The inmates worked for Germans on farms, and on construction sites of roads and railroads.
A ghetto was established in the town, to which many groups of Jews were relocated, including Jews from Slovakia. On May 8, 1942, the Nazis conducted an Aktion in which many Jews were rounded up and transported to the Nazi extermination camp Sobibor. In October 1942, the ghetto' population was liquidated. In a massacre carried out by German troops: the Reserve Police Battalion 101, some 800-1000 Jews, among them women and children, were taken to a nearby forest and slaughtered. The ghetto's remaining inhabitants were transferred to another camp.
With the approach of Red Army forces in the summer of 1944, the Germans had plans to burn the town. On July 25, 1944, the German occupation forces were engaged in battle by fighters of the Polish underground Armia Krajowa, joined by Polish partisans of the Bataliony Chłopskie. With the arrival of Soviet Red Army troops, the combined antifascist combatants succeeded in securing the area's liberation.
Tourism
Among the notable tourist attractions is a Catholic church (restored c. 1670 in a project by Tylman van Gameren) with the graves of the Opaliński and Lubomirski families. There is also another old Catholic church, built in 1613 in the "Lublin Renaissance" architectural style, whose finest exemplars are this church in Konskowola and one in Kazimierz Dolny. There are also the remains of a Lutheran cemetery.
Końskowola is also known as the place of death of the Polish poets: Franciszek Dionizy Kniaźnin and Franciszek Zabłocki.
Trivia
Henryk Sienkiewicz, a famous Polish author, Nobel prize winner, noted for his historical novel With Fire and Sword including a mention of:
- "(...) Very poor beer also in this Końskowola, Mr. Zagłoba noticed (...)"
