Map - Biała Podlaska (Biała Podlaska)

Biała Podlaska (Biała Podlaska)
Biała Podlaska (Alba Ducalis) is a city in eastern Poland with 56,498 inhabitants It is situated in the Lublin Voivodeship (since 1999), having previously been the capital of Biała Podlaska Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Biała Podlaska County, although the city is not part of the county (it constitutes a separate city county). The city lies on the Krzna river.

The first historical document mentioning Biała Podlaska dates to 1481. In the beginning Biała Podlaska belonged to the Illnicz family. The founder of the city may have been Piotr Janowicz, nicknamed "Biały" (Polish for "white"), who was the hetman of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Biała Podlaska was administratively part of the Podlaskie Voivodeship, and then the Brest Litovsk Voivodeship in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (then in union with Poland).

In 1569, Biała Podlaska changed ownership; the new owners were the Radziwiłł family. Under their rule, Biała Podlaska had been growing for two and a half centuries. In 1622, Aleksander Ludwik Radziwiłł built the fortress and the castle. In 1628, Krzysztof Ciborowicz Wilski established Bialska Academy as a regional center of education (since 1633 it was a branch of the Jagiellonian University, then called Kraków Academy). During this time, many churches were erected, as was a hospital.

The prosperity period ended with the Swedish invasion in 1655. Then Biała Podlaska was attacked by Cossacks and Rákóczi armies. The town was significantly destroyed; however, thanks to Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł and his wife Katarzyna Sobieska, it was rebuilt. In 1670, Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł gives Biała Podlaska town rights and the coat of arms, which depicts archangel Michael standing on a dragon.

In 1720, Anna Katarzyna Radziwiłłowa began building the tower and the gate - both buildings exist to this day and are the most interesting remains of the castle and palace. In the 18th century, the city and the fortress were times destroyed many times in warfare and rebuilt. The last heir, Dominik Hieronim Radziwiłł, died on 11 November 1813 in France, as a colonel of the Polish army. The palace fell into ruin and was pulled down in 1883.

After the Third Partition of Poland in 1795, Biała Podlaska temporarily came under the rule of Austrian Habsburgs (Austrian partition of Poland). During the Napoleonic Wars, temporarily recovered by Poles in 1809–1815, Biała Podlaska was part of the Polish Duchy of Warsaw after the wars with Austria.

In 1815, the town became part of Congress Poland within the Russian Partition of Poland. At the end of the 19th century, Biała Podlaska was a large garrison town of the Imperial Russian Army. Near the intersection of Brzeska Street and Aleje Tysiclecia Avenue is a cemetery for soldiers killed during World War I.

In 1918, following World War I, Poland regained independence and the town was reunited with Poland. During the Second Polish Republic in the interwar period, Biała Podlaska was growing fast. The town was the seat of the Podlaska Wytwórnia Samolotów (PWS), an important airplane factory. There was also a garrison of the 34th infantry regiment of the Polish Armed Forces. The regiment, formed in 1919, fought successfully in the Polish–Soviet War, and also fought against Germans and Soviets during the invasion of Poland, which started World War II in 1939. During the Polish–Soviet War, on 1 August 1920, Russians invaded the city, but were quickly repelled by the Poles, and later on they invaded again, before the town was eventually liberated by the Polish 1st Legions Infantry Division on 17 August 1920. The last commander of the regiment, lieutenant colonel Wacław Budrewicz, was taken prisoner of war by the Soviets and murdered by them in the 1940 Katyn massacre, in which also multiple Polish teachers and policemen from the city, and alumni of local schools were murdered.

World War II halted the town's development because of Nazi and Soviet repression. The Germans captured Biała Podlaska on 13 September 1939, but withdrew on 26 September to allow the Soviets to a station in the town. But, on 10 October 1939, in accordance with the terms of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviets departed and the town was reoccupied by the Germans. By that time, the Soviets had already completely plundered the PWS airplane factory, so that nothing but empty buildings remained. Poles expelled by the Germans in 1939–1940 from various places in German-annexed western Poland were deported to the area, while their previous homes were handed over to German colonists as part of the Lebensraum policy. In March and July 1940, the Germans imprisoned dozens of Poles in the local prison, and then massacred them in the nearby Grabarka forest. Over 40 Polish teachers were arrested in the town on 24 June 1940, imprisoned in Lublin and then deported to concentration camps, as part of the AB-Aktion. On 5 July 1940 the Germans carried out another massacre of Poles in Grabarka, whom they previously imprisoned in the town. Further massacres of Poles were carried out by the Germans throughout the war. Despite such circumstances, the Polish resistance movement was active in the city. After Germany attacked their Soviet ally in Operation Barbarossa, a German prisoner camp was set up near Biała Podlaska, where many Soviet POWs were killed. In 1944 the town was recaptured by Polish and Soviet troops and restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which remained in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

In the postwar period and after the fall of communism, Biała Podlaska has developed as a more modern city. It retains many of the historic features in the central Polish old town of the city. From 1975 to 1999 Biała Podlaska was a capital of the voivodeship, later it again became a city county, as before 1975. 
Map - Biała Podlaska (Biała Podlaska)
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Country - Poland
Flag of Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of 312696 km2. Poland has a population of 37.7 million and is the fifth-most populous member state of the European Union. Warsaw is the nation's capital and largest metropolis. Other major cities include Kraków, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Gdańsk, and Szczecin.

Poland has a temperate transitional climate and its territory traverses the Central European Plain, extending from Baltic Sea in the north to Sudeten and Carpathian Mountains in the south. The longest Polish river is the Vistula, and Poland's highest point is Mount Rysy, situated in the Tatra mountain range of the Carpathians. The country is bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukraine to the east, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to the south, and Germany to the west. It also shares maritime boundaries with Denmark and Sweden.
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Currency / Language  
ISO Currency Symbol Significant figures
PLN Polish złoty zÅ‚ 2
ISO Language
PL Polish language
Neighbourhood - Country  
  •  Belarus 
  •  Czech Republic 
  •  Germany 
  •  Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic 
  •  Russia 
  •  Slovakia 
  •  Ukraine