A Short History of Lublin
The Location
The older parts of the city are built on hills, Czwartek, Grodzisko and the castle hill, and the premonitory on which the old town sits. It is uncertain when Lublin was first established, but it is likely that the first settlement and market was on Czwartek, probably on the site of the current church of Sw. Mikolaj, which overlooks the coach station. The settlement developed on these hills for two major reasons, the most obvious perhaps being that they were more defensible whilst the second that the rivers Bystrzyca, Czerniowka & Czechowka regularly flooded the very flat land between these hills. Czwartek and Grodziskoare individual hills but are part of the northern side of the Czechowka river valley and part of a series of hills on this nothern side of the city. Castle hill is an individual hill on the plain of the Bystrzyca and Czerniowka rivers and so easily defended from all directions. The old town is located at the eastern end of a long ridge that extends about 3km and is the southern side of the the Czechowka river valley. Attacks on the city from the north, east and south were difficult due to the steepness of the slopes up from the plain, but an attack from the west would have been much easier as it is relatively flat and covers quite a large area.From Pre-History to the 14th Century
Any history of Poland that does not often mention Lublin is no history at all, it is a city whose tide of fortune has flowed and ebbed but has always been there at the major turning points. Poland as a state did not exist before the 10th century, it was part of a greater region of slavic tribes that finally began to take a specific form in 966 when one of the kings aligned himself with the Roman Catholic church. The Roman Catholic church was a formidable organisation in medieval politics and could be a powerful protector and stabiliser of states in the Europe of the time.Before the 11th century little is known of Lublin and the root of its name is a cause for speculation with many fables linking it to early Polish princes and the Roman Empire. It is most likely that it was named for someone, but as it was probably no more than a tribal settlement with no written records the truth will never be known. Archeological digs on Czwartek hill have found signs of a settlement dating back to the 6th century. As the Polish state established itself Lublin found itself on the eastern borders and, because of its good defensive position and location on several important international trade routes, the original village started to evolve into an important trading town. According to Jan Dlugosz, a Polish chronicler, Lublin in 1241 was a populous town, although this was by the standards of the time - Lublin had a population of about 1000 at the end of the 14th century. A royal castle was established and in 1317 Lublin gained city rights, of the Magdeburg form, from King Wladyslaw Lokietek.. City rights were a very important way for trade to be controlled as it established the right to hold fairs. Fairs were one of the most important methods of economic growth as it attracted merchants and established definite lines of trade between these centres. For the state they were very good as it allowed it to control economic growth as well as establishing a hierarchical structure to the state. Even as late as the 1870's the Russians were punishing many towns in the region by removing their town rights as retribution for their participation in the 1864 uprising (although it must be admitted that by this time many of these places were economic back waters).
Sw.
Mikolaj (St. Nicholas - you know, Father Christmas!) on Czwartek hill.
The first most historical event was the granting of city rights,
inclusive of the rights to hold markets, in 1317 by Wladyslaw Lokietek.
The city at this time was walled and encompassed a roughly circular area at the eastern end of the present old town. The shape of this early city is still to be seen as the pattern of streets has changed little. As the city grew it expanded to the west and many streets today are curved as they follow the lines of earlier city walls. With this street pattern Lublin is unusual, with the granting of city or town location rights the usual practice was to rebuild the place with a grid like street pattern and a central market. Lublin, on the other hand, was barely altered and was allowed to grow naturally, probably due the nature of its position on the end of a premonitory and the need to retain its defensive integrity. The castle and these defensive walls were very important for a borderland city as there were frequent attacks by Russian, Lithuanian and Tartar tribes. 3 times in the 14th and 15th centuries the Tartars came through Lublin on their way to devastate parts of central Europe - Even to this day the flat area to the east of the castle is called Tatary, the place where the Tartars camped. The original settlement area under the original city rights were 7 hectares, and is roughly defined as the area between the Grodzka and Krakow Gates. Grodzka gate was the one which was closest to the castle, and Krakow gate on the road to Krakow. The road from the castle to Krakow can still be traced through todays city as it has barely changed.
At the end of the 12th century a Roman Catholic archdiocese was established in the region with the archbishops seat in Lublin. Lublin was not only on the eastern border of the Polish state, it was also the same border for the Roman Catholic Church. The lands to the east were under the control of the Orthodox Church, a situation which has little changed even to the present day.
When the Polish crown was given to the Jagiellonians in 1385, who also held the crown of the Duchy of Lithuania, then Lublin was transformed from being a border town to a city in the central part of the Union lands, located nearly half way between the capital of Poland in Krakow and that of the Duchy in Vilnius. As a result of this Lublin became an ideal meeting point for diplomatic treaty signing, the most significant of which being the final act of Union in 1569.
Interestingly enough, the first Jagiellonian king had a pagan father, an Orthodox mother and became a Roman Catholic as the king of Poland. The Holy Trinity church in the castle, built in the 13th century and managing to survive the almost total destruction of the castle in later centuries, is in the Western European Gothic architectural style with Eastern European, Orthodox frescoes covering all of the interior walls.
The 15th and 16th Centuries
Lublin grew during the 15th and 16th centuries and had the important function of being made one of the two Crown Tribunals for Poland in 1578, the Crown Tribunal being the highest court of appeal in Poland. Administratively Poland of the time was divided into Great Poland and Little Poland, Lublin being the center of Little Poland. Because of the importance of these courts, many of the great aristocratic families of Poland built palaces here to house themselves during the court sessions. Many of these palaces still exist although their function and condition have changed significantly over the centuries, being converted into flats, schools, prisons and administrative buildings.The area that the Lithuanians camped during the signing of the treaty was to the west of the city, but still on the same ridge. Today this place is known as Plac Litewski, Lithuanian Square and here stands the monument to the union. The establishment of the crown trubunal here meant that Lublin was no longer growing just through normal trade, but also through the attraction of the aristocrats and gentry who now had their palaces and manors here.
During the previous few centuries Lublin had been just one of many towns in Poland, now it became the administrative centre for a province in 1474. Over the centuries this province has fluctuated in size, and sometimes in name, but it has never ceased to exist. It's basic area is the land betwen the Bug and the Vistula rivers in the east, north and west, and the southern slopes of the Roztocze hills in the south. Its location on the trade routes between the Black Sea and the Baltic, between Moscow, Vilnius and Krakow meant that it traded with Western Europe, Russia, the Baltic states and the Ottoman Empire. the success of Lublin was that it more than doubled its population during the 16th century to over 9000. Many of the new arrivals of this time were Jews, who settled in the area between the old town and the castle, the area known as Podzamcze. By 1580 the size and importance of the Jewish settlement equalled that of Krakow and Lwow and it became the official seat of the Jewish parliament, the Parliament of the Four Sides of the World.
With Lublin's increasing importance it was also inevitable that many religious houses found there way here. The earliest was the xx, who were part of the cause of the location of the settlement on the present site of the old town. The earliest monastic establishments, like those of the merchants and the aristocratic families were within the walls of the old town as protection from attacks. However, after the union with Lithuania attacks on Lublin became less frequent as it meant having to cross Lithuania first. Despite the fact that the city had been enlarged several times it was difficult to find room to find room to build churches, monastic buildings and palaces within the confines of the city walls. The Jesuits built their basilica, now Lublin Cathedral, and other monastic buildings just outside the final line of city walls from the beginning of the 16th century. Other monastic orders followed and established themselves all over what is now the modern heart of the city, to the west of the old town.
The 17th & 18th Centuries
By the middle of the 17th century Lublin, like much of Poland, was in a severe decline and had suffered much damage from invasion of Cossacks and Tartars in 1655, and later of Swedish, Lithuanian and Hungarian armies, which resulted in the almost total destruction of the royal castle. In 1672 the Tartars returned and burnt and plundered the suburbs, including the Jewish quarter. By the end of the century the city was repaired and functioning again and even held parliamentary sessions during the Northern War. However, a series of plagues, fires and imposed depredations from visiting armies caused an economic downturn that lasted most of the 18th century. In the 1880's, in the time of Poland's last king, Stanislaus Poniatowski, there was a revival of the economy of Poland as the Polish government struggled to reform itself - a difficult process between the 3 power groups of the king, the aristocrats and the gentry. For Poland it was too little, too late, and Russian troops arrived in Lublin in 1792 as part of an attempt to overthrow the new constitution. In 1794 the trops were back, followed quickly by the Austrians.The partitioning of Poland by the surrounding states of Russia, Germany and Austria ended an era for Lublin with the arrival of Austrian soldiers and government, and the closure of the Crown Tribunal. Under Austrian rule the city became a center of prisons of political prisoners and the population declined significantly. The aristocratic palaces were generally sold or rented out and some monasteries were closed down. Some of the palaces and monasteries became prisons, military hospitals or soldiers barracks.
The 19th Century
In 1809 the Austrians were forced out of Lublin and it became part of the Warsaw Principality, which evolved into the Kingdom of Poland in 1815. However, despite its name, it owed its allegiance to Tsarist Russia and the government was Russian. With the splitting of the area of Poland between the three surrounding powers the whole picture of trade patterns altered, the connections with Krakow dwindled and exporting via Gdansk meant shipping through land controlled by another power. Fortunately during the 19th century life in Europe generally was changing with the increasing mechanisation of industry, the growth in new forms of transport and changes in the relations between the classes were changing with the growth of the importance of the middle class.Lublin has always been an agricultural region with little in the way of industry except those local crafts such as minor metal crafts, hand loom cloth etc. It has little in the way of steep streams to power factories and had to wait the arrival of steam engines for power and the railway for the delivery of coal and the distribution of its finished goods. Although there were many difficulties for Lublinians during the 19th century, including retaliations for two national uprisings (1831 and 1864) and various attempts by the Russians to Russify the population, it was a period of growth, the largest that the city had ever seen up until then. Krakowskie Przedmiescie, the former road to Krakow, became the center of the new city and local villages became absorbed in the new industrial, trade and residential districts. During this period there was a growth in the population of Europe, partly due to much improved health care. For most other countries there was a general drift into the newly industrialised towns, but this happened to a much lesser extent in Poland as the level of industry was far less. Lublin absorbed many former farm workers into its new industry while many others from the region had to emigrate to other countries in Europe and the New World.
The 1831 and 1864 insurrections were very important events in the history of Poland, and of Lublin. Each though led to a period of economic and cultural slowdowns with the destruction of many businesses and the impositions of censorship. However, by the 1870's Lublin began to expand rapidly, pariticularly with the introduction of the railway from Warsaw in 1878. During this period the Christian population drifted away from the old town to the new parts and they were replaced by the expanding Jewish population of Podzamcze. Even so, the Russian partition of Poland was the most economically backward. One only has to look at the railway network for the late 19th century to see the difference between the Germanic and the Russian controlled areas, the former having an intricate network while the latter has a bare minimum. Even today the part of Poland east of the Vistula is known as 'Poland B'.
The primary industrial zones were to the south of the city, on the plains of the Bystrzyca river where formerly were the villages and estates of Piaski and Bronowice. One of the main reasons for this location was that it was close to the newly constructed railway. The main railway staion was also located here, it is a feature of most towns in the Russian partition of Poland for the railway stations to be outside the town becaause the land was cheaper and it made control of the railway during times of strife much easier. The major companies operating here were the Wolski machine factory and the Moritz factory producing agricultural equipment, the sugar beet factory and the Vetter brewery on Bernardynska street in the buildings of a former monastery. On the northern side of the city was the Hess scales factory, later moved to the south side of the city. All these, except the Wolski and Moritz factories, are still in operation today.
The area now known as Plac Litewski, which was formerly used as a parade ground, now became the main square of the new city. Facing onto the square were several palaces, including that of the Russian governor. On the opposite side to the palaces was built the main post office, on one side a large hotel, the Europa, and on the other a couple of banks and eventually another hotel, the Lublinianka. Part of the square were gardens, which must have helped to conceal from view of the Russian governors palace the Unia Lubelska monument. Towards the end of the 19th century an Orthodox basilica was built in the centre of the square, complete with onion shaped cupolas. This was not the only Orthodox church in Lublin, there is still one down by what is now the coach station under Czwartek hill, and also one in the Russian military zone to the west of the city. the latter has long since been converted to a Roman Catholic Church and striped of all its original architectural features.
Part of the modernisation of the city was the improvements in the cultural life of the inhabitants. Several theatres were built and a new public park laid out just outside the western limits of the city, between the Krakow road and the new suburb of Wieniawa. It was named the Saski park and modelled on one of the same name in Warsaw. To make the city a healthier place to live in and to cope with the expanding population, the individual church graveyards were closed down and a new city cemetery created on present day Lipowa street. Although now completely enclosed by the city, for the 19th century it was outside the town. Later another cemetary opened to the east of the city and a new Jewish one on the northern side. The bodies in the old graveyards were dug up and reburied in the Lipowa cemetary and only those of the Bernadine and the Lutheran churches are the only ones were you can still see the remains of the graveyards, the latter as a small park.
The 20th Century
In the years1905-07 there was a small attempted revolution of the workers, the workers secretly meeting at the walls of the Lipowa cemetary for their counsels. The revolution was not a success and brought about a fresh wave of russification. However, it did lead to the establishment of some new, eseential, institutions, such as Polish high schools. The first world war saw the departure of the Russians in 1915 and the return of the Austrians. This change of control altered significantly the functioning of industry as many former markets in the east were lost. The Austro-Hungarians were quite rapacious as they had a large requirement for food and equipment to maintain their war effort. Fortunately, the Austro-Hungarians were not so interested in the civic duties and on 5th November 1916 a new Polish local government was formed in Lublin. In November 1918, a new government, the Provisional People's Government of the Republic of Poland was proclaimed here in Lublin.During this period there was much bitter fighting between the newly formed Red Army and Polish troops, including the last ever European cavalry battle at xx. With the ending of the Russian rule the Orthodox basilica in Plac Litewski was demolished and the bricks used to construct a rest home for soldiers at the western edge of the city.
The inter war period saw the continuing growth of the city, although there were many difficult times, particularly in the early 1930's when the world went through a recession. In 1918 a Catholic university was formed (KUL), in the early 1920's the Bobulanian Jesuits created a college, and then in 1930 the Jewish 'Academy of the Lublin Wise Men' was opened. The 1920's saw a long overdue improvement in the water supply system, an on going problem since the foundation of the city.
In 1939 the city was bombed during September and it was captured by German troops on the xx. During the war the death camp at Majdanek, just outside the city, was constructed, but before this the Jewish population was gathered together in a ghetto in the area between the old town and the Czechowka river. Podzamcze, the traditionally Jewish area between the castle and the old town, and Wieniawa, a suburb with a high Jewish population were almost completely destroyed. Lublin castle was used to house Polish officers and intelligentsia before they were killed, as well as the cellars of the Gestapo building known as Podzegarek (Under the Clock). The area between Plac Litewski and Wieniawa became the primary German zone partly because of the concentration of important civic buildings and because here was the most modern and stylish flats and villas of Lublin. The Germans made a great pretense of Lublin being a traditionally German city, based on the rather flimsy evidence of the original charter of city rights. The form of these was based on those used to establish rights for the German city of Magdeburg, these rights forming a template for those of many cities across Europe. Plac Litewski became Hitler Platz and many roads were renamed.
With the freeing of Lublin by the Soviet Red Army on the 22 July 1944 for the second time in Poland's history and the 20th century Lublin became the capital of Poland, albeit this time with a communist government. When Warsaw was freed on the xx, then the government was transferred back there. Now came the Stalinist period, Plac Litewski became xx, street named after religious figures or political figures were renamed for communist political figures heroes and other communist ideas and organisations. For those unfortunate enough to have chosen the AK resistance movement instead of the communist this was a period of great difficulties as the leading members were hunted down and sentenced for imaginary crimes against the state, many people changing their names or fleeing the country. An unannounced overnight revaluation of the currency destroyed many people's savings, owners of businesses found themselves lucky if they were retained as managers, and large landowners and monastic orders found themselves relieved of part or all of their buildings and land. Even today religious organisations are claiming back some of what they lost during this time. The period 1939 to 1956 was perhaps the saddest time for Lublin and Poland in general.
Despite the problems, a lot of reconstruction work was done of buildings damaged during the war and new housing districts started to house the rapidly increasing population. A new university, the university of Marie Curie-Sklodowska (UMCS) was established, a people's university designed to rival that of the Catholic University of Lublin (KUL) plus some other technical schools and academies. A small engineering establishment was vastly expanded to become a large lorry and van factory and a new town, Swidnik, was established a few miles to the west to house the relocated aircraft factory, WSK.
In the 1970's there was a false boom in the Polish economy created partly by the use of loans from Western Banks. However, by the time of the world recession of the late 1970's things were going badly wrong with the economy as it found itself unable to pay back the loans. In July 1980 there were protests and strikes in Swidnik and Lublin, the forerunner of those at the Gdansk shipyards. The 1980's were a time of difficulties in Lublin, the decade started off with strikes and then martial law with tanks on the streets. The economy was floundering and people had to queue for what little there was in the shops. The cordination of supply and demand was in tatters. One shop might be empty and then get a sudden delivery of toilet rolls. There would be a rush to that shop and people would leave with a string of toilet rolls around their necks - the so-called Polish necklaces.
In shops there were 2 queues, a normal one and one for pregnant women, the very elderly etc. There were strict rules for queues, 2 or 3 people were served from the long queue for everyone in the shorter one, often the people in the shorter queue received abuse from people in the long queue. Buying was difficult as most things were on coupons, but even with a coupon for meat, say, you had to start queueing at about 4 in the morning if you wanted anything other than boney beef or chicken. For furniture the queue could last for days and special queue committees were formed. They made a list of all the people in the queue and where they stood in it. Different members of the family took turns in the queue, and you were allowed to nip away to eat something etc, but if you were away when they made one of the regular roll calls from the list, then you lost your place. If you worked for a factory that produced something, you were allowed some of the produced goods. This was good as it allowed you to exchange goods with people working for other factories. However, for all those people who didn't work in a factory then you made do with less. Rationing with coupons began in about 1978, with sugar, and lasted about 10 years.
This
was an important local building for the ZOR Zachod district of Lublin.
If you brought a kilogram of paper here, you could exchange it for a single
toilet roll. This was quite something when toilet rolls were not available
in shops.
1989 brought the first free elections and for the first time in a long time free enterprise was no longer condemned. It was still a bumpy rise for the econmomy with very high levels of inflation, but things began at last to move in a positive direction. Passports would no longer be kept by the police and only given to a citizen for the duration of a trip - if they felt like it. However, the effects of 45 years of communism will not easily be shaken off because much of the older generations simply do not have the skills to operate successfully in a free market. Institutions like the national railways (PKP) are overstaffed by make work, and even in the university system the professors are like little kings with too many office staff, underpaid teaching and research staff and students too afraid of not getting their degrees to even ask for more reasonable libraray opening hours. the attitude of shop and restaurant staff is slowly changing as they begin to realise that their customers do have a choice and are no longer forced by circumstance to put up with abysmal service. There are some big rocks in Lublin's future to navigate around, but you do get the feeling that things are going in the right direction.
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