History of Zamość
Zamość was founded in 1580 by the Chancellor and Hetman (head of the army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth) Jan Zamoyski, on the trade route linking western and northern Europe with the Black Sea.
[1] Modelled on Italian trading cities, and built during the Baroque period by the architect Bernardo Morando, a native of Padua, Zamość remains a perfect example of a Renaissance town of the late 16th century, which retains its original layout and fortifications (Zamość Fortress), and a large number of buildings blending Italian and central European architectural traditions.
In the case of emergency, the powerful fortress could give shelter to people fleeing from threatened areas.
From the very beginning Zamość was the biggest fortes in the eastern borders of the country, therefore it played a big military role.
Zamoyski Family Fee Tail budded immediately and the person responsible for this was the founder of this fortes.
The city, however, faced numerous invasions, including the siege by the Cossacks led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky in 1648, the leader of the uprising against the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (1648–1654), and during the Swedish Deluge in 1656.
Following the First Partition of Poland, in 1772, the city was annexed by Austria and included within the newly formed Crown Province of Galicia.
The modernized fortress played a big role during the November Uprising in 1830-1831 and surrendered as the last Polish resistance point.
After Poland regained its independence in 1918, Zamość witnessed the outbreak of a communist revolt, suppressed by the Polish troops under the command of Major Leopold Lis-Kula.
The plan bases on two intersecting at an acute angle axes, on which two main streets of the city are placed.
The main thought is the example of adjusting the concept of the spatial layout to the terrain conditions, the wealth of the program of public buildings, paying attention to the architectural composition in the scale of the city, flexible control of the project and reconciling freedom with discipline.
The Cathedral of Lord's Resurrection and St. Thomas the Apostle is one of the most magnificent temples in the Polish early modern architecture.
It was funded by the founder of the city, the Chancellor Jan Zamoyski and designed by his court architect Bernardo Morando in 1587–1598.
The only major alteration took place between 1824 and 1826 many ornaments, including the Zamoyski family’s coat and some elements from inside the church were removed.
The Town Hall, which stands on the grounds of Great Market Square is one of the most popular historical treasures of Zamość.
Jerzy Kawe and Andrzej Bem redeveloped the Town Hall in a late Baroque forms.
In 1770 the tower was decorated with a slated helmet with a cupola and the paintings of Jan Mayer graced two ballrooms on the floor.
The intention of its founder was to prepare the aristocratic youth for the public duty, basing on the popular school of Jan Sturm in Strasburg.
This early Baroque building, planned regularly and symmetrically is an outstanding achievement in the field of architecture in the 17th century.
The sophisticated shapes, lace attics, friezes, decorative windows, sculptures and the variety of colours of the Renaissance tenement houses are the pride of the citizens of Zamość and they amuse the tourists from around the world.
The tenement house with the rich, stuccoed decoration, which presents dragons, angels and oriental, floral and animal motifs was built on the right side of the Town Hall by the Armenian merchants, who were brought by Jan Zamoyski 5 years after having started the construction of the city.
On the left side of the Town Hall there are two tenant houses with the arcades, which gained their common façade in the 19th century.
The first Jewish settlers were mainly the Sephardi Jews coming from Italy, Spain, Portugal and Turkey.
The Synagogue is a prominent example of late Polish Renaissance or Mannerist style in harmony with the general urban design.
Zamość was the hometown of many prominent Jews, including poet Solomon Ettinger (1799–1855), writer Isaac Leib Peretz (1852–1915), and political activist Rosa Luxemburg (1870–1919).
It proved an early victory for the Austro-Hungarian forces over the Russian Empire, but one they would not be able to reproduce in the later months of the war.
In early September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland which started World War II, the Polish government evacuated a portion of the Polish gold reserve from Warsaw to Zamość, and then further southeast to Śniatyn at the Poland-Romania border, from where it was eventually transported via Romania and Turkey to territory controlled by Polish-allied France.
[citation needed] In 1942, Zamość County, due to its fertile black soil, was chosen for further German colonization in the General Government as part of Generalplan Ost.
Reichsfuhrer Himmler visited Zamość in August 1942 and ordered that the buildings of the old city be demolished immediately and replaced by a "German town".
In the 1970s and 1980s the population grew rapidly (from 39,100 in 1975 to 68,800 in 2003), as the city started to gain significant profits from the old trade routes linking Germany with Ukraine and the ports on the Black Sea.
