Biłgoraj [bʲiwˈɡɔraj] ⓘ (Yiddish: בילגאריי, Bilgoray, Ukrainian: Білґорай) is a town in south-eastern Poland with 25,838 inhabitants as of December 2021.

[5] The area of current Biłgoraj was covered by dense forests and swamps, where establishment of human settlements was difficult.

In the first half of the 16th century, local noble family of Gorajski built first settlements in this sparsely populated corner of Lesser Poland.

The town of Biłgoraj was officially established in 1570 by Adam Gorajski, and incorporated by King Stefan Batory at Lviv on 10 September 1578.

Biłgoraj was an important center of the Bar Confederation, and in the area of the town several skirmishes took place between the Poles and the Russians.

After the Partition of Poland, Biłgoraj was annexed by the Austrian Empire, and in 1809 it became part of Duchy of Warsaw (since 1815, Russian-controlled Congress Kingdom).

[5] In 1806 following the Partitions, Biłgoraj – which was still privately owned and on the verge of bankruptcy – was purchased by the local entrepreneur named Stanisław Nowakowski,[6] who built for himself a palace in Biłgoraj's district of Roznowka, modelled after Warsaw's famous Łazienki Palace.

The town remained in the hands of the Nowakowski family until 1850, when it was sold to the Tsarist official Nikolay Platonov (Mikołaj Płatonow), and in 1864 appropriated by the government as the seat of a county.

In 1928, electrification reached the town, but Biłgoraj nevertheless remained poor and underdeveloped, where most houses were constructed of wood.

A few days later Nazi German troops entered the town and immediately organized anti-Jewish pogroms.

On 28 September, units of the Red Army entered Biłgoraj, but they retreated after a few weeks, and the town became part of the Nazi-ruled General Government.

The most famous incident of this kind took place on 24 September 1943, when a Home Army unit under Tadeusz Sztumberk-Rychter attacked Biłgoraj's prison, releasing 72 inmates, including Ludwik Ehrlich.

Very few of the Jewish partisans from Bilgoraj survived the war due to great efforts by the Nazi Germans to hunt them down in the woods.

In Biłgoraj are located a headquarter and main factories of Black Red White, leading furniture manufacturer in Poland.

The town is also known as a center of wine industry (Ambra company bottling plants are located in village Wola Duża, 4 kilometres (2 miles) east of the city), knitting (mainly thanks to Mewa factory) and production of cardboard packaging, wooden doors and windows.

Biłgoraj is an important center of local folklore, with highly developed folk art, regional clothes and customs.