"A Glimpse of Lublin" a Lublin Travel Page by evaanna

Photo by Andrzej Kaznowski

Lublin is situated in the south east of the country and is Poland's ninth largest city.The first settlement in the area was set up as early as the 6th century AD and the first church was built there in 1282. Lublin got its civic charter already around 1257. In the 15th - 16th centuries it was a thriving market town owing to its location along the trading route from the Black Sea to the west of Europe. It was then that the Lublin Old Town was built. In 1569 Lublin was the venue of signing the act of union between Poland and Lithuania. The 17th century brought a setback in the town's development due to numerous raids of the Cossacks from the east and the Swedish 'deluge', which turned many of the buildings into ruin. In addition, it was the time of the Great Plague, which killed thousands.
In spite of these, Lublin was then one of the leading centres of the Reformation in Poland. The first printing press was set up there already in the 16th century by the Jews and a Polish one followed suit soon afterwards.
During the partitions of Poland Lublin changed hands three times. In 1792 it became part of Russia, three years later - of Austria, and then reverted to Russia in 1815. During WWI the town was occupied by German and Austro-Hungarian troops. After the war it was in Lublin that the first government of independent Poland was established. In 1918 Lublin got its first university.
World War II brought an end to the town's peace and prosperity. As early in the war as 23.09.1939 the first 23 representatives of Lublin inteligentsia were shot, and this was followed by numerous public executions throughout the war. The Jewish community, who made up a third of the town's population, was wiped out, first by executions in the Jewish Cemetery and later on a mass scale by deportations from the Lublin Ghetto to concentration camps. One of those camps, Majdanek, was actually set up in the city itself.

Lublin is now again a thriving city with some industrial plants, shopping malls, supermarkets, two universities and many historical monuments which were not destroyed during the war. It is worth visiting for its numerous old churches, palaces, the castle, the Old Town. I wish I knew it better, then I could write more about its atmosphere. As it is, I only saw it two or three times in passing on our way elsewhere. The pictures were taken by my friend Andrzej Kaznowski, who visited the town during the long May weekend this year. I thought it would be a pity not to use them.