The Lublin Parliament session of 1569 led to the creation of a real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, thus creating the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

In 1578, Lublin was chosen as the seat of the Crown Tribunal, the highest appeal court in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, and for centuries, the city has been flourishing as a centre of culture and higher learning.

[13] Casimir III the Great, appreciating the site's strategic importance, built a masonry castle in 1341 and encircled the city with defensive walls.

Some of the artists and writers of the 16th century Polish renaissance lived and worked in Lublin, including Sebastian Klonowic and Jan Kochanowski, who died in the city in 1584.

Jews were a vital part of the city's life until the Holocaust, during which they were relocated by Nazi Germany to the infamous Lublin Ghetto and ultimately murdered.

[22] Many of the prisoners were then deported to the Sachsenhausen and Auschwitz concentration camps, while around 500 Poles were murdered in five large massacres carried out in the present-day district of Rury in 1940.

[23] Among the victims of the massacres were both men and women: doctors, engineers, local officials, lawyers, judges, activists, military officers, parliamentarians, Polish resistance members, policemen, teachers and school and university students.

[27] There are also known cases of local Polish men and women, who were captured and sent to either forced labour or concentration camps by the Germans for sheltering and aiding Jews.

[29] After the war, some survivors emerged from hiding with the Christian rescuers or returned from the Soviet Union, and re-established a small Jewish community in the city, but their numbers were insignificant.

[32] Many of the released people, including hundreds of kidnapped Polish children, were extremely exhausted or sick, and were taken to local hospitals,[32] which quickly became overcrowded.

[33] Lublin pharmacists and residents organized help for the children, and after leaving the hospital, the people were taken in by the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, which resulted in an epidemic typhus outbreak, which caused many deaths among the population.

[33] On 24 July 1944, the city was taken by the Soviet Army and became the temporary headquarters of the Soviet-controlled communist Polish Committee of National Liberation established by Joseph Stalin, which was to serve as the basis for a puppet government.

There is a visible growth in professionals eager to work in Lublin,[citation needed] due to reasons like quality of life, culture management, the environment, improving connection to Warsaw, levels of education, or financial, because of usually higher operating margins of global organisations present in the area.

[citation needed] The large car factory Fabryka Samochodów Ciężarowych (FSC) was acquired by the South Korean Daewoo conglomerate in the early 1990s.

[54] In September 2007, the prime minister signed a bill creating a special economic investment zone in Lublin that offers tax incentives.

[55] At least 13 large companies had declared their wish to invest here, e.g., Carrefour, Comarch, Safo, Asseco, Aliplast, Herbapol, Modern-Expo, and Perła Browary Lubelskie.

[56][57] At the same time, the energy conglomerate, Polska Grupa Energetyczna, which will build Poland's first nuclear power station, is to have its main offices in Lublin.

Similar investments are planned for the near future such as Park Felin (Felicity) and a new underground gallery ("Alchemy") between and beneath Świętoduska and Lubartowska Streets.

Lublin has also direct train connections with Rzeszów, Szczecin, Gdynia, and other Polish cities and towns in the region as Nałęczów, Chełm or Zamość.

The rest of the planned expressway network around the city, that will be built in the coming years, consists of S12 to the east in the direction Chełm, S19 north towards Białystok, and S17 southeast towards Zamość.

Lublin's Old Town shares several traditions with Lesser Poland, mostly the dialect and historic architecture that brings a unique ambience comparable with Kraków.

There are several historic churches in the Old Town, including the Holy Trinity Chapel in Lublin Castle with the frescos, that are a mixture of Roman Catholic motifs with eastern Byzantine styles, reinforcing how the city connects the west with the east.

Monuments of the 20th-century architecture include the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva and its synagogue, socialist-realist Zamkowy Square and brutalist Słowacki housing estate by Oskar Hansen.

[63] In 2008, Lublin collaborated with Ukrainian Lviv, to film and distribute promotional materials which painted both cities as attractive to the filmmaking industry.

Numerous feature films have been partially financed by the fund, including Kamienie na Szaniec, Panie Dulskie, Volta and award-winning Carte Blanche.

The Labyrinth Gallery (formerly "BWA") is the Artistic Exhibitions Office – Biuro Wystaw In the Old Town and the immediate surrounding, over 100 unique restaurants, fine-dining venues, cafes, pubs, clubs and other catering outlets are located.

In the latter half of the 2010s, the robust international community gathered around Lublin's Medical University has impacted the growth of restaurants offering various world cuisines.

The school has many notable alumni, such as Bolesław Prus, one of the most influential Polish writers and novelists, and Lesław Paga, the co-founder of the Warsaw Stock Exchange.

[82] Lublin has an official flag, a 5:8 rectangle divided into three horizontal stripes: white (top), green (narrow, middle), and red (bottom).

Lublin is divided into 27 administrative divisions (dzielnica):[83] Abramowice, Bronowice, Czechów Południowy, Czechów Północny, Czuby Południowe, Czuby Północne, Dziesiąta, Felin, Głusk, Hajdów-Zadębie, Kalinowszczyzna, Konstantynów, Kośminek, Ponikwoda, Rury, Sławin, Sławinek, Stare Miasto, Szerokie, Śródmieście, Tatary, Węglin Południowy, Węglin Północny, Wieniawa, Wrotków, Za Cukrownią, and Zemborzyce.