Zamość (Polish: [ˈzamɔɕt͡ɕ] ⓘ; Yiddish: זאמאשטש, romanized: Zamoshtsh; Latin: Zamoscia) is a historical city in southeastern Poland.

The historical centre of Zamość was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1992, following a decision of the sixteenth ordinary session of the World Heritage Committee, held between 7 and 14 December 1992 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States; it was recognized for being "a unique example of a Renaissance town in Central Europe".

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.

[3] Modelled on Italian trading cities, and built during the late-renaissance period by the Paduan architect Bernardo Morando, Zamość remains a perfect example of a Renaissance town of the late 16th century.

During the final stages of World War I, in 1918, local Poles liberated the city from foreign occupation, shortly before Poland officially regained independence.

In September 1939, after the outbreak of World War II, German Luftwaffe planes bombed Zamość several times.

[7] The city was overrun by the Germans during the invasion of Poland and the local garrison, staffed by the Polish infantry regiment of podpułkownik Stanisław Gumowski, was defeated.

[5] 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, with the new name of Himmlerstadt, after Heinrich Himmler.

[12] The Nazis found it difficult to find many families suitable for settlement in the area, and those who did settle often fled in fear, because the former Polish residents would burn down houses or kill their inhabitants.

[13] In 1942–1943, tens of thousands of inhabitants of the region were ethnically cleansed by the Nazi occupiers, to make space for German settlers in order to ensure Germanisation of the area.

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.

Zamość was home to many prominent Jews, including poet Solomon Ettinger (1799–1855) and writer Isaac Leib Peretz.

[5][15] Soon after the handing over to the Germans by the Soviet Union on October 8, 1939, the Nazis instituted the Judenrat, through which to control the Jews, and in December 1939 created an open ghetto in the Nowa Osada neighbourhood.

It was liquidated before the end of November 1942;[5] deportations had begun in April, with some 3,000 Jews sent to the Bełżec extermination camp in a Holocaust train consisting of 30 cattle cars.

[15] In October, the Nazis shot 500 Jews in the streets and deported 4,000 Jewish prisoners via the Izbica Ghetto transfer point to Bełżec for gassing.

Jan Zamoyski commissioned the Venetian (from Padua) architect Bernardo Morando to design the city, based upon the anthropomorphic concept.

The façade includes a geometrical and plant frieze whereas the parapet is decorated with grotesque figures of a married couple.

A Polish architect Jan Michał Link decorated the façade of the house with fluted Ionic columns.

The tops of the windows were embellished with the carved busts of two mythological warriors: Minerva wearing a basinet and Hercules dressed in lion skins.

Namely the building, which was built by Szymon Piechowicz from Turobin, a chemist and a professor of medicine at the Zamoyski Academy, still houses a pharmacy.

In 1636 the house was bought by another professor of the Zamoyski Academy, Andrzej Abrek who turned it into a splendid edifice with an arcaded portal, triangular top and three stone doors in the hallway.

The house has four windows, arcades and a richly ornamented finial in the form of a cartouche, which reputedly enclosed Szczebrzeszyn's coat of arms.

[18] The cathedral (a former collegiate church until 1992) was founded by Jan Zamoyski and dedicated to the Lord's Resurrection and St. Thomas the Apostle.

The passageway is decorated with plaques commemorating the martyrdom of the inhabitants of Zamość Region during World War II.

[18] Tomasz Zamoyski, the second entailer, and his wife Katarzyna built the Franciscan Church Dedicated to The Annunciation in the Baroque style.

In 1784 the Austrians closed down the Franciscan Order and as a result the church lost its sacral function for many years, housing a cinema and secondary school.

High schools Technikum Colleges The city is located on the broad gauge railway line linking the former Soviet Union with Upper Silesian coal and sulphur mines as well as less than 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border crossings to Ukraine.

However, there are some large production plants, mainly food factories and companies, that reflect the regional dominance of agriculture.

The Old Town and the remnants of the old Zamość Fortress constitute an urban complex inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In addition, there are the open-air performances of the Zamość Summer Theatre (Zamojskie Lato Teatralne) and the annual "EUROFOLK" International Folk Festival.